PCWorld sat down with Intel product manager Anand Kajshmanan last Friday to ask about the latest crop of ultrabooks, and some of the answers were rather intriguing, to say the least. When asked why a prospective laptop buyer would choose an ultrabook over the MacBook Air, the company rep suggested that Windows itself was a prime differentiator, calling it "the operating system users have come to love." Since Apple's MacBooks also have Intel processors inside, it seems a little odd to suggest that Mac OS X is anything less than lovable itself, but it's not the only time the interview delved into controversial territory where Apple is concerned.

"We fundamentally believe in the concept of touch, and touch on a clamshell," Kajshmanan told the publication, when asked about how Intel has been pursuing touchscreen-equipped notebooks in preparation for Windows 8, adding that the company is "strongly encouraging our partners" to add touchscreens to their ultrabooks, seemingly regardless of form factor. Steve Jobs famously dismissed touchscreen laptops in 2010, saying that though Apple had tested them, the company found that vertical touch surfaces led to fatigue. But though the Windows 8-ready touchscreen laptops we've been seeing use clever hinges or sliding mechanisms to avoid vertical touch, perhaps Intel itself thinks that such a device has a place in the market.