Intel has already spent millions on ultrabooks, on everything from wild west themed TV ads, to marketing development and technical support for vendors.

The chimpmaker is now broadening its approach by proposing a standardized battery cells. The advantages of standardization are quite obvious. Increasing supply should result in lower prices and notebook makers would probably shave off some associated R&D costs as well.

Intel is proposing 60 x 80mm units as standard, with 16mm thick cells, or about 2mm thinner than cells used in most notebooks today. Intel dismisses 14mm batteries as an option, as they still cannot provide enough juice and they are more expensive to produce.

There is also a pinch of irony to the story. Now that notebook vendors are building unibody ultrabooks with non-replacable batteries, we could finally get a proper battery standard. So, ultrabook batteries could be interchangeable regardless of vendor, but they will not be user-replacable.

More here.