Ultrabooks are essentially laptops -- but thinner, lighter, sleeker and pricier than the notebooks you're used to lugging around. Apple essentially invented the category with the MacBook Air, which shed its hard disk drive for all-flash storage. Three years later, Windows players finally caught the wave. Intel coined the "ultrabook" name this year and is using its marketing might to kindle the flames. Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo, LG, Hewlett-Packard, Acer and others all touted new models at CES.
PC sales were miserable during the holiday season. Netbooks are dead and tablets aren't a hit for anyone yet but Apple. That means everyone else will be pushing the ultrabook trend hard in 2012. -Stacy Cowley
From ultrabooks to an obnoxious iPod dock, the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show ran the gamut from "great" to "really?"
