Maverick - "Today's new release, the OmniBook 4150, brings the
fastest mobile chip from Intel, the 300-MHz Pentium II, to the 4100 line. "
You too can own the fastest - and lightest - mobile machine on the market, Maverick.
You do want to own the very best, don't you?
Paul
{======================================}
news.com
HP: Thin will win notebook arena
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
October 21, 1998, 12:25 p.m. PT
It's thin to win for Hewlett-Packard.
The latest crop of thin-and-wide notebooks
are going to become
the mainstay in the
portable market,
forcing the more
powerful, and more
costly, desktop
replacement models
further to the fringe of
the market, according to executives at HP.
Thin-and-wide designs typically pack a
robust feature set into an extra-wide but thin
design. This design is exemplified in the IBM
Thinkpad 600, the Compaq Armada 6500,
and the Hewlett-Packard 4100 series.
The push toward thin, in fact, is already
happening at HP, said Marc Jourlait, director
of worldwide product marketing for mobile
products at HP, which released a new
version of its slimline OmniBook 4100 today.
The 4100, introduced in April, already
accounts for more than half of all of HP's
notebook sales, he said. Today's new
release, the OmniBook 4150, brings the
fastest mobile chip from Intel, the 300-MHz
Pentium II, to the 4100 line. So far, the
300-MHz chip has only been available on
HP's more upscale, and bulky, 7150
OmniBook.
"A lot of corporate users are into their
second or third generation of notebooks.
They don't want to carry around an 8 or 9
pound box," he said. "The 4100 has been the
big seller in terms of units."
Technological advances in battery
technology will further reduce notebook
sizes, he said. Thinness will also start to
come to the value line of notebooks in the
near future, resulting in thinner value
notebooks with 12-inch screens.
Compared to
desktops, thin
notebooks like the
4100 or IBM's
ThinkPad 600 are
neither short on
features or cheap.
Where these
machines tend to
shine, however, is in comparison to the big,
bulky desktop replacement models that have
often been upheld as paragons of portable
computing. Slimline notebooks typically
come with smaller hard drives and often
fewer modular drive bays, according to
Jourlait. In exchange, the overall notebook
comes in at under 6 pounds.
The OmniBook 4150 notebook comes with a
300-MHz Pentium II, a 14.1-inch active matrix
screen, a 6.4GB hard drive, a drive bay, a
NeoMagic graphics chip, and 64MB of
memory. It sells for $4,299. The OmniBook
7150, by contrast, comes with a 8GB hard
drive and a more powerful graphics engine,
among other features. It also weighs more.
While some vendors have experimented with
expanding the footprint of the machines to
accommodate 15-inch screens, Jourlait said
that the next advances in form factor will
come in further reducing notebook thickness.
One likely avenue for reducing thickness will
come through the proliferation of prismatic
lithium ion cells. Unlike current battery cells,
which are cylinders, the prismatic cells are
shaped like prisms. This means that they can
be arranged in an interlocking pattern inside
a notebook with very little wasted space,
unlike cylinders, which sit together like logs.
The height on some prismatic cells is also
shorter than the diameter on cylindrical cells.
"You can fill almost every crevice with battery
material," he said. "The thickest element of a
notebook today is the battery."
Case materials will also improve. A number
of companies have released ultraslim
notebooks with magnesium or carbon fiber
cases, both of which are more sturdy than
plastic and allow for thinner boxes. As the
materials come down in price, they will
proliferate across product lines.
Related news stories
• HP unveils Jornada handheld October 19, 1998
• HP slashes notebook prices September 28, 1998
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