Toshiba To Sell Home PC For DVD Movies, Internet
TOKYO - Japan's Toshiba said today it will soon launch a compact, home-use personal computer that can be used with a TV screen to view DVD movies, run PC software and surf the Internet.
The new multi-purpose product, to go on sale in Japan next month, does not come with a monitor but can easily be connected to a television set and other audiovisual equipment, Toshiba said.
The aim is to fuse TV and computer functions in a device that can fit snugly in a standard living room and offer the latest in consumer entertainment, such as digital video discs.
"Demand for PCs for living rooms is growing fast," Atsutoshi Nishida, a Toshiba director in charge of PC business, told a news conference. "We hope to cater to such demand."
The Vision Connect, in the style of a set-top box, weighs only 3.9 kg (8.6 lbs) and is about a quarter of the size of a standard desktop computer, making it the world's smallest and lightest home-use PC, he said.
The new product is equipped with a 133 MHz Pentium processor, a 32 megabyte main memory and a 1.4 gigabyte large-capacity hard disk drive, and will be priced at 248,000 yen ($2,084) when it goes on sale in Japan on June 10.
It comes with a wireless keyboard and remote controller with a pointing device which allow users to operate the computer from anywhere in the room, Toshiba said.
Toshiba plans to make 3,000 Vision Connect PCs a month. The company plans to sell the product in overseas markets later, it said.
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