Intel has continued to make tremendous efforts to develop suitable components for ultrabooks, unwilling to cut prices on its own processors. To make thinner ultrabooks have been already offered a rechargeable cell form factor hard disk drives with body thickness up to 7 mm, body made of composite materials.
Intel has launched a new initiative: 7 mm thickness for optical disc used in laptops. Standard thickness of the body for such drives is currently at 9.5 mm. Drive manufacturers were skeptical about this idea, because the cost of developing new components and equipment for their production will be high and the sales of ultrathin ODD will be too small to justify the cost.
Even if the popularity of ultrabooks will grow, demand for DVD drive drives on the market in general has been steadily declining, as customers expect solid state drives and hard drives. In such circumstances, to invest in the development of ultrathin ODD does not make sense, but from an engineering point of view, the problem of reducing the thickness of optical drives body is completely solvable.