Hewlett-Packard to cut workstation prices up to 37 percent
Reuters Story - March 31, 1998 23:48
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PALO ALTO, Calif., March 31 (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co.
said on Monday it will cut the prices of its Unix workstations,
the powerful desktop computers that engineers use, by up to 37
percent, taking advantage of recent cost-reduction moves.
The price cuts will make the HP Visualize lines more
competitive in price to so-called "Wintel" workstations, which
draw their power from Microsoft Corp. Windows software and
Intel Corp. microprocessors, H-P executives said.
Workstations are souped-up desktop computers mainly used by
engineers and scientists for graphically intensive tasks, like
product design and simulation.
The price reductions also will increase the pressure on
Unix workstation rivals, such as Sun Microsystems Inc., Silicon
Graphics Inc. and International Business Machines Corp.,
analysts said.
H-P, based in Palo Alto, Calif., said the price cuts will
take effect on Wednesday. The price of the high-end H-P
Visualize Model J2240 will drop 37 percent to $35,480 from
$55,900, the company said. The price of the low-end B180L will
be reduced 29 percent to $11,356 from $15,900. Prices start at
about $5,000, comparable to a top-of-the-line Wintel
workstation.
H-P, the second-biggest computer maker in the United
States, said it can afford to take the price cuts because of
recent moves to cut its manufacturing costs.
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