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To: livn-let-buy who wrote (116339)	11/8/2000 8:25:19 PM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 120523

HP touts its lean new Pavilion PCs By John G. Spooner ZDNet News Sometimes smaller is better. Hewlett-Packard Co. on Wednesday announced a smaller desktop PC aimed at second- and third-time PC buyers. The sleek new form is the first of three new HP Pavilions aimed at luring new high-end customers. "(HP) is going to go to try to target specific niches with a different look and feel than what they've done before," said Stephen Baker, director of analysis at market research firm PC Data. "This is all part of what seems to me like tighter niche marketing to the consumer." Indeed, said Bruce Greenwood, HP's Pavilion marketing manager, "we've been talking with consumers ... and it was clear that a certain portion of the market was interested in style and small form factor," Dark blue and silver metallic So HP cooked up the first of several new models -- a smaller one called the Pavilion 2755C. The machine, 13 inches tall by 14.75 inches deep and 4 inches wide, features a new dark blue and silver metallic industrial design, from which forthcoming HP Pavilion models will take cues. The Pavilion 2755C starts at $1,049, making it possible for consumers to pair it with a 15-inch HP flat-panel display for about $2,000. HP expects this bundle to be attractive for more experienced PC users, buyers who are on their second or third PC. The PC ships with an 800MHz Intel Pentium III chip, 128MB of RAM, 20MB hard drive, and a CD-RW drive. Bring on the 'mega-tower' But where there are smaller PCs, there will also be larger models, too. Due to its small confines, which hinder heat dissipation, the new 2755C will not be able to accommodate processors faster than 1GHz, Greenwood said. Therefore, HP is also offering a new, larger "mega-tower," dubbed Pavilion 9700, which takes some industrial design cues from 2755C. But the 9700's primary goal is to deliver fast processors, such as AMD's Athlon or Intel's forthcoming Pentium 4. Pavilion 9700 modes are now available directly from HP, configured with Athlons and Pentium IIIs. The first retail version of the PC will be available with the Pentium 4, later this month, HP said. The company plans to offer 9700 models with AMD's new performance platform -- which includes the new AMD 760 chip set and double data rate SDRAM -- in the future. Space for add-ons HP expects PC enthusiasts to gravitate toward this new, heftier PC. As the largest PC in HP's consumer lineup, it will also offer plenty of space for extra hardware such as graphics cards. At a later date, HP will offer a customization kit with different-colored plastic panels for the 9700's chassis, keyboard, and monitor. This kit will cost about $30. Early next year, the company will complete the rollout with a new mini-tower, which takes the new design into account and also offers faster processors. But analysts aren't expecting HP -- despite these new product introductions -- to do away with current Pavilion models anytime soon. HP will continue to keep the current Pavilions on the shelves, selling these new models direct or via its kiosk system in retail stores. The kiosk effect Analysts say this allows faster time to market for the new PCs. "They need to have product on the shelf that people can pick up and walk out with, and also have more interesting products in the kiosk system," Baker said. "Obviously those products aren't going to be in stores (this month) ... but they've got them on their site and they're taking advantage of the kiosk systems."