Nihil & Intel Investors - 300 MHz Mobile Pentium II Launch is September 9.
A whole bevy of companies will be introducing 300 MHz Pentium II Notebook PCs - Compaq, Dell, IBM, Gateway, Toshiba, ...
Paul
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news.com
Sleek, pricey notebooks arriving
By Jim Davis and Michael Kanellos
Staff Writers, CNET News.com
September 4, 1998, 2:50 p.m. PT
Another wave of slim, flashy notebooks is
due to arrive next week with the release of
Intel's Pentium II 300-MHz chip for mobile
computers, but the low-end of the market
appears to be the real hot spot.
Notebook sales have
slowed in recent
quarters, especially in
comparison to
desktops, and mostly
because of price.
Starting at around
$3,200, the price gap
between
high-performance
notebook PCs and
desktops is as great
as ever, especially in
light of the
burgeoning market for low-cost desktops.
Even though 233-MHz and 266-MHz Pentium
II notebooks will move down in price with the
release of the new chip, most notebooks will
stay above $2,000. The few notebook
models from top-tier manufacturers knocked
down into the sub-$1,500 category appear to
draw buyers quickly, pointing to pent-up
demand for low-cost models.
But the high-end will take the limelight next
week. On September 9, notebook vendors
will start showing off notebooks using the
long-anticipated 300-MHz Pentium II chip for
notebooks.
Compaq will unveil
two new lines of slim
notebooks to go with
Intel's
announcement.
To compete with
IBM's 560 ThinkPad line, Compaq is
releasing the Armada 3500, a slim notebook
with a 266-MHz or 300-MHz Pentium II and
12.1- or 13.1-inch screens. Prices start at
$3,299.
In addition, Compaq will release the Armada
6500, an update of the Ultra2000 notebook
inherited from Digital Equipment, with a
300-MHz processor. Compaq will also
incorporate the 300-MHz Pentium II across
its product lines. An Armada 1700 with a
14.1-inch display, a 300-MHz Pentium II and
64MB of memory is expected to start at
$4,999 sources said.
Among direct vendors, Gateway is expected
to use the chip across its notebook line,
while Dell will make some noise with the
Inspiron 7000 that will ship with a 15-inch
active matrix display, the largest available on
a notebook. (See related story)
Dell will also release a version of its Latitude
notebook with the new chip. A Latitude CPI
D300XT with a 300-MHz Pentium II, 64MB of
memory, a 4.0GB hard drive, and a 13.3-inch
active matrix screen will sell for under
$3,200, sources said.
Micron will move the new Intel chip into its
Trek and GoBook notebooks, sources said.
The high-end Trek with a 14.1-inch display
and 64MB of memory will be priced at
$2,999, while the GoBook ultraportable with
a 12.1-inch display will be priced at $3,099.
Micron declined to comment on
unannounced products.
Toshiba has made provisions in its Satellite
8000 and Portege 7000 line for the 300-MHz
chip, and IBM will roll the chip out in the 380,
600, and 700-series ThinkPad, sources
said. Hewlett-Packard, NEC, and other
vendors will follow suit as well.
Meanwhile, systems with older chips will
drop in price.
Notebooks with 233-MHz Pentium II chips
have already dipped in price to below
$2,000, and users should see some more
systems slip under that mark.
Still, those price points aren't hitting the
sweet spot with customers. Unit sales have
been increasing for notebooks in the $1,399
price range, according to Mike Gumbert,
chief operating officer of Insight, a large
corporate computer dealer. Less expensive
notebooks constitute over half of Insight's unit
sales.
"There is a huge pent-up demand for the low
end of the market," he said. "High-end
notebooks are fine, but that's not where the
volume is."
Other electronic resellers say that $1,399
notebooks last "a couple of hours" before
selling out.
Fire sales, however, are getting tougher to
come by. That's because vendors won't have
as many old systems to get rid of in
preparation for the new notebooks.
Companies such as Toshiba, Compaq, and
IBM have been forced to keep inventory
levels down because they need to be able to
update technology more rapidly, since Intel,
Advanced Micro Devices and Cyrix continue
to rapidly introduce new processors,
commented Katrina Dahlquist, notebook
analyst with International Data Corporation.
"The inventory issues of a few months ago
have really gone away. It's just a situation
where companies are managing the channel
in different ways," she noted.
Intel is an investor in CNET: The Computer
Network.
Related news stories
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1998
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