Acer and ASUS are working with panel manufacturers AU Optronics and Chimei Innolux separately to develop a new generation of full HD notebook panels with resolutions of 1928x1080, according to industry insiders. This is contributed by the fact that Apple are pushing for their next-generation iPads to sport 2048x1536-capable displays in early 2012.

Acer and ASUS want to push the next release of Ultrabooks in Q1 2012 at the earliest, to feature 1080p displays. At the moment, ASUS' 11.6-inch UX21 Zenbook models sport a resolution of 1366x768, with upgrades of resolution to 1600x900 for its 13.3-inch UX31 models. Acer's 13.3-inch Aspire S3 also includes a 1366x768 display.

Both ASUS and Acer are expecting to deliver between 400,000 and 500,000 Ultrabooks before the end of this year. Upgrading them to 1080p panels should help them compete against Apple's MacBook Air, a lot.