Are ultrabooks anywhere on your must-buy list for Christmas? According to market research firm IHS iSuppli, consumers will likely not rush to grab a unit of the lightweight but powerful laptop computer this holiday season.

The products were touted last year as possible boosters for the flagging PC sales worldwide but a new iSuppli report has asserted that what were unleashed were indeed impressive and powerful mobile computing tools but not attractive enough for buyers to rekindle their love affair with conventional computers.

The iSuppli report blamed steep pricing and lacklustre marketing as main reasons for the slow take off of the new generation of PCs.

The industry is guilty of "nebulous marketing and unappealing price," iSuppli said.

PC vendors were asking too much when price tags for the ultrabooks were set above the $US1000 mark, which in the process drove away would-be buyers as shown by the constantly rising global sales of smartphones and tablet computers, the report said.

The iSuppli report also faulted Intel for its confusing marketing approach for the new breed of computers, specifically criticising the PC chipmaker for coining promotional terms that have largely failed to tickle buyers' interest.

From ultrabooks, ultrathins also emerged, which researchers said only led to the further bewilderment of the targeted market, who could have tested run at least the muscled but highly portable new PCs.

In short, ultrabooks fell short of crashing into the consciousness of the broad buying public, IHS iSuppli senior analyst Craig Stice said on the report.

"The PC industry has failed to create the kind of buzz and excitement among consumers that is required to propel ultrabooks into the mainstream," Mr Stice was quoted by CNN as saying on Monday.

As a result, iSuppli, he added, has downgraded its 2012 global sales outlook for the segment, from the previous projection of 22 million units earlier in the year the figures have been adjusted downward to more than 10 million ultrabooks.

Yet all is not lost, iSuppli said, if vendors would be willing to implement steep discount on ultrabooks, which the firm should be priced between $US600 and $US700 in order to lure more buys.

The report also forecasted that ultrabook sales will pick up, and the overall PC market for that matter, once Microsoft has officially pushed out the Windows 8, which the software giant said is representative of its major product overhaul since Windows XP was launched more than a decade ago.

The new operating system, Microsoft said, will integrate all computing devices, and will run on tablets and smartphones - the very products that threaten the existence of traditional PCs.

These two important factors could spur growth in the PC market, with ultrabooks alone, iSuppli said, set to increase its annual shipments and reached 95 million over the next four years, if and when the right moves were considered and adopted by industry players.

Mr Stice clarified too that while ultrabooks have yet to realise their full market potentials, the segment was not bleeding at all and in fact should reflect four of every 10 laptop computers that global buyers will take home by the end of the year.

Of course, the numbers pale in comparison to the projected quantity of smartphones and tablets that consumers will scoop up in the same period, considering that new devices from Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung should be out by the last quarter of 2012.