February 28, 2000, Issue: 775
Section: Infrastructure
Vendors Push Small, Non-Legacy PCs -- HP And Compaq
Count On Reliability And Lower Cost Of Ownership To
Entice Customers
Paul McDougall
Hewlett-Packard last week became the second major computer maker this
year to ship a slimmed-down business PC that emphasizes hassle-free
maintenance and a nearly legacy-free design over expandability. Compaq
shipped its entry, the iPaq, at the end of January.
It's still unclear how interested business users are in these products. Analysts
say they expect these systems' lower cost of ownership and ease of
maintenance to make the devices attractive to the business market. "The
legacy-free factor is going to be hot," says Gartner Group analyst Kevin
Knox, who expects these types of systems to account for 60% to 65% of
corporate PC sales by 2002.
Though neither Compaq nor HP disclosed its customers for these systems,
Compaq says it has taken thousands of orders for the iPaq on its Web site,
with some customers ordering hundreds of systems. HP says it has had early
versions of its e-Vectra in place at 20 companies.
But Knox also warns that manufacturers' insistence on marketing legacy-free
computers as Internet or E-business devices may needlessly alienate some
customers, who may assume the systems are too specialized for a range of
business tasks. "The tendency to put an 'E' spin on everything may scare off
users who simply want a reliable corporate PC," he says.
HP officials say the e-Vectra, about a quarter the size of a typical desktop
computer, is just that-a reliable PC for business. The e-Vectra offers the full
power of a traditional desktop PC and includes some legacy features, such as
parallel, serial, and PS/2 ports. "We find that corporate users still require a
mix of legacy and nonlegacy," says Michael Cade, HP's Vectra brand
manager.
Available processors range from a 500-MHz Intel Celeron to a 667-MHz
Pentium III. An extractable 8.4-Gbyte hard drive is standard, and users can
select either 64 Mbytes, 128 Mbytes, or 256 Mbytes of SDRAM. The
e-Vectra also includes HP's TopTools device-management application and
comes with Microsoft's Windows 98 or Windows 2000 preloaded.
Prices start at $549 for a Celeron unit. Compaq's legacy-reduced version of
the iPaq, which retains parallel and serial ports, has the same list price; the
vendor also offers a legacy-free system for $499.
Meanwhile, IBM has indicated it will begin selling similar devices in the second
quarter.
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