Next year's bargains
If the price is too high, ultrabooks will not sell. However, it is a fantasy that Apple gear is cheaper than these ultrabooks. The 64 GB entry-level sub-1000 euro MBA is for marketing, the usable Airs start at 200 euros higher. There is room for non-Apple ultrabooks to live, if the product is appealing.
As for the consumer, having some ultrabook models not sell very well is great. You can find last-year Asus and Acer notebooks on heavily-discounted sales quite frequently, unlike Apple stuff. Especially if the sales of that model were less than expected. At, say, 500 euros next fall, the current crop of ultrabooks would be a great bargain - same situation as with HP Touchpad.
As some kind of minor, anecdotal, counterpoint to the article, the 850 euro S3 Ultrabooks seem to be selling at a decent clip at one Finnish retailer (3-4 a day for a week or two) - not Apple-like numbers, but it doesn't seem like they are going to get stuck with a lot of unsold inventory. For that particular retailer (verkkokauppa.com), they seem to be selling about as well or better than any particular MBA model at this point in the S3 Ultrabook's lifetime.