Even though tablet PCs are gaining momentum, notebooks are not going away anytime soon. In fact, based on the number of Ultrabooks to be displayed at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2012) in Las Vegas next week, InformationWeek is calling 2012 as the year of the Ultrabooks, the ultra-thin, ultra-light notebooks. In fact, ever since Apple unveiled ultra-thin MacBook Air, more and more competitors are entering the space.

According to market research firm IHS iSuppli, Ultrabooks will make up 43 percent of global PC shipments in 2015, up from 2 percent in 2011 and 13 percent in 2012. InformationWeek quoted Shawn DuBravac, director of research for the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), which operates CES, as saying in December that “he expects to see somewhere between 30 and 50 new ultrabooks debut at the electronics show.”

Hence, it is not surprising to hear that computer giant Hewlett-Packard is also planning to introduce an Ultrabook very soon. To get some publicity, a source at HP has mailed a video teaser to technology news site Mashable.com. According to Mashable.com reporter Stan Schroeder, the forthcoming HP Ultrabook is named Spectre.

The video sent to Mashable.com does not give any details about the HP product, but it clearly indicates that it is an ultra-thin, very light notebook PC with an usual array of ports and connectors on the left side, wrote Schroeder. 

Besides HP, other major competitors in this market include Acer, Asus, Lenovo, LG Electronics, and Toshiba. While majority of Ultrabooks are powered by Intel processors, AMD is also readying processors for this market.

Meanwhile, research firm IHS iSuppli’s study indicates that future Ultrabooks will have convertible form factors and touch-screens, allowing users to deploy them as notebooks or tablets, depending on the user’s needs.