Group effort may lower laptop prices:
An effort by the mobile-computing industry to standardize hardware used in
laptop computers soon may lower the price consumers pay for the products.
It also may significantly boost business for companies that make modems and
other mobile-computing communications devices, including 3COM Corp.,
which designs and manufactures such devices in Salt Lake City.
3COM, based in Santa Clara, Calif., is among 10 companies that a year ago
formed a coalition called the Mini PCI Roundtable to develop a proposed
standard, called Mini PCI, said Jef Graham, vice president and general manager
of 3COM's Mobile Communications Division. The group last week forwarded
its proposal to an industry special-interest group responsible for reviewing and
approving new standards.
Mini PCI is a specification that will enable 3COM and other companies to
design internal modems and other communications devices for any laptop
computer, regardless of brand, Graham said. Internal modems now typically are
custom designed by manufacturers for a single PC maker.
Graham said 45 percent of laptop computers have internal modems. The
remainder have external modems, which 3COM also manufactures in Salt Lake
City.
But as mobile computing becomes more widespread, the trend is to equip
more laptops with internal modems in order to free up the slots external
modems use for other accessories, such as scanners or external hard drives.
The move toward more internal-modem use necessitates a standard to
replicate some of the benefits external modems offer.
If all internal modems are designed to the same specification, it will be easier
to replace or upgrade them.
Manufacturers who are able to develop new laptops without also having to
wait for custom-designed modems will be able to get their products to market
less expensively and more quickly, reducing prices consumers pay.
And standardized internal modems will be easier to repair, reducing the cost
of owning a laptop.
''In the final analysis, the result will likely be that manufacturers' cost will
decline, users will gain a significant benefit, and the market will get a nice boost
as well,'' said Ernie Raper, a VisionQuest senior market analyst.
Graham anticipates the standard, once it is approved, dramatically will
increase 3COM's presence in the market for internal laptop modems, possibly
creating new jobs in Salt Lake City.
Already, 3COM employs about 1,100 Utahns, most of whom make external
modems and the Palm Pilot hand-held computing device.
Graham anticipates 3COM's production in Salt Lake City will increase 50
percent in the current quarter compared to last quarter.
The company expects this year to make 4 million external modems at its Utah
plant.
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