Comdex, DVD will be a star again....................................
November 10, 1997, Issue: 762
Section: Hardware
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Comdex Outlook:Fall 1997 Hardware Product Review -- Mini mobiles, maxi monitors take on Vegas
By CRN Staff
VARs looking for a hardware theme at Comdex/Fall next week should remember that small is in and that monitors are more than just another peripheral.
Starting with the increasingly watched subnotebook market, Hitachi PC Corp. and Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. each will show newly introduced products.
The notebook from San Jose, Calif.-based Hitachi weighs 2.7 pounds, sports a 8.4-inch TFT display and features components such as a 133MHz Pentium processor with MMX technology, 8 Mbytes of RAM, a 1-Gbyte hard drive, an infrared port, three Type II PC Card slots, one Type III PC Card slot and several standard peripheral ports.
Positioned to compete against Toshiba's Libretto, Hitachi's yet-to-be-named subnotebook is priced between $2,499 and $2,999, depending on configuration. The product is expected to start shipping next month.
Meanwhile, Irvine, Calif.-based Toshiba's refreshed version of the Libretto, the 70CT, features a 120MHz Pentium with MMX and a 1.58-Gbyte hard drive. It weighs 1.88 pounds, runs Windows 95 and has a 6.1-inch active matrix display, an infrared port, one Type II PC Card slot and standard port expander. Available next month, the 70CT will cost an estimated $1,999.
Toshiba also will be displaying two new Satellite Pro notebooks-the 480CDT and 460CDX-targeted at small and midsize businesses. The systems feature 233MHz and 166MHz Pentiums with MMX, respectively. Both will be available next month. The 480CDT will be priced at $3,999; the 460CDX, at under $2,499.
Two new Tecra notebooks, the Tecra 750DVD and 750CDM, also will be shown. Both models feature full DVD video playback with MPEG-2 decoding, Dolby Digital AC-3 sound support and
3-D graphics. The 750DVD ships with a DVD drive, while the 750CDM has a 20X CD-ROM drive. Both are available now at $5,799 and $5,399, respectively.
On the handheld front, several companies will show devices that support Windows CE version 2.0. Sharp Electronics Corp., Mahwah, N.J., will demonstrate its new mobile organizers, the SE-300 series.
DVD technology is expected to be another high-profile topic. Hewlett-Packard Co., along with Mitsubishi Chemical Corp., Philips Electronics, Ricoh Co. Ltd., Sony Corp. and Yamaha Corp., will demonstrate rewriteable DVD disks Nov. 18.
Comdex will culminate another big year for monitors.
For CRTs, the hot item will be the 19-inch monitor, which several manufacturers are showcasing. And monitor-makers plan to display their latest products that support the Universal Serial Bus.
Mag InnoVision Co. Inc., Santa Ana, Calif., will unveil two new LCD displays-one that pivots and another that has an 18-inch viewable TFT screen-along with two CRT monitors. The company also plans to introduce a 25-inch PC-TV monitor with a built-in tuner.
LG Electronics U.S.A. Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J., will announce its 15.1-inch LCD color monitor that measures less than 2.5-inches thick and weighs 12 pounds.
Meanwhile, Acer America Corp., San Jose, will be demonstrating its plasma-based flat-panel displays, one of which will have a 34-inch screen. And Fujitsu Microelectronics Inc., San Jose, will showcase the next phase of its 42-inch plasma-display monitor, as well as its 25-inch SXGA plasma-display and wide-viewing angle, 15-inch XGA LCD monitors.
Hitachi will demonstrate a product that combines its "Super TFT" LCD display technology with its entry into the desktop PC market. The VisionDesk is an all-in-one screen and desktop that features a 13.3-inch LCD screen with a 140-degree viewing angle. It will be available in the January quarter for between $3,499 and $3,999, depending on configuration.
KIMBERLY CAISSE, JOSEPH KOVAR and KELLY SPANG contributed to this story.
Copyright (c) 1997 CMP Media Inc.
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