BE STILL MY BEATING HEART - Laptops close in on $1000 barrier

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04/17/2001 - Updated 11:42 AM ET

Laptops close in on $1,000 barrier

By John G. Spooner, ZDNet News

Dell Computer on Monday released a new consumer notebook with middle-of-the-road features and a low-end price.

Dell comes near the magical "$999" mark with its new Inspiron 2500, which starts at $1,049. Meanwhile, Hewlett-Packard on Monday unveiled new Pavilion n5300 notebooks that offer better features than the Inspiron 2500, such as a slightly faster processor and a DVD drive. However, its price tag starts at $1,299.

In what might shape up to become the battle of the cheap notebooks — among Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Toshiba — Dell is using price to attract consumers who might not have purchased a notebook before.

Dell is "really going to hit a sweet spot in the consumer market," said Alan Promisel, an IDC analyst. With the current state of the PC market, he added, "consumers are kind of sitting on the sidelines, waiting for something to happen. It's a very impressive consumer configuration at that price."

At $1,049, Dell's Inspiron 2500 offers a 700-MHz Intel mobile Celeron chip, a 12.1-inch active-matrix display, 64MB RAM memory, a 5GB hard drive and a CD-ROM drive. The notebook, in addition, includes six free months of America Online or one free year of MSN Internet access, ostensibly saving the consumer another $130 to $260.

Average selling prices for notebooks "are slowly going down," Promisel said. "We're seeing richly configured corporate systems at $2,000 and more budget-minded consumer models going down towards the $1,000 market. That's a trend I think is going to continue."

Despite its smaller screen size, the Dell notebook offers a number of features that have not typically been available on rock-bottom priced notebooks. The screen, for example, is active matrix as opposed to many previous $1,000 notebooks, which shipped only with dual-scan displays. An active-matrix display is considered better than a dual-scan because it is brighter, is easier to view at side angles and minimizes the so-called ghosting effect when the cursor moves across the screen.

Similarly, the Inspiron 2500 includes 64MB of RAM and a lithium-ion battery, whereas low-cost models in the past provided only 32MB and nickel metal hydride batteries. Lithium-ion batteries can store more energy than their nickel metal hydride counterparts and thus last longer.

A lower-priced notebook is "something (customers) had asked us for some time," said Pat Cooper, group manager for Inspiron product marketing. "This is really touching a new market that we felt we wanted to pay more attention to, to put more focus on."

However, Dell wished to avoid putting together a system that was sub par, technologically. So the company set out to lower component prices.

"In some cases, we actually drove the cost down to below what some of our competitors might be paying for the component," Cooper said.

The Inspiron 2500 can be fitted with larger screens and other more high-end features, such as CD-rewritable or DVD drives. A configuration with a 15-inch display starts at $1,449.

The notebook represents a new entry-level price for the company and a new standard for the notebook market, but Dell still asserts that notebook buyers will continue to buy high-priced notebooks.

The 2500 will "be a sizeable part of the mix, but it won't be the lion's share," Cooper said.

Meanwhile, HP announced on Monday a pair of new lower-priced Pavilion notebooks.

The new Pavilion n5300-series notebooks will range in price from $1,299 to $1,599. The $1,299 n5310, for example, offers a 750-MHz mobile Celeron chip, 13.3-inch active-matrix display, 128MB of RAM, a 10GB hard drive and 8x DVD drive.

HP already offers a $999 Pavilion, the n5210. The machine packs a 650-MHz mobile Celeron chip, but offers a 13-inch dual-scan display.

In the higher end of the notebook range, Dell began shipping on Monday a new Inspiron 8000 notebook for $2,118 with a 900-MHz mobile Pentium III chip and 15-inch high-resolution display.

NEC on Monday also announced a pair of new Versa models. Although the new notebooks do not offer the low price of the Inspiron 2500, they do offer another novelty. They represent the first corporate-oriented notebooks to ship with Transmeta's Crusoe processor in North America. Packing a TM 5600 chip running at 600 MHz, the new notebooks start at $2,299.

In related news, consumers can expect more price cuts and processor upgrades in notebooks over the summer. Intel will offer new mobile Pentium III chips and an 800-MHz mobile Celeron.

Meanwhile, Advanced Micro Devices is expected to come out with the first mobile version of its Athlon chip in June. AMD has not actively participated in the notebook market since late last year when it released the last K6-2.

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2001

Answers

$999.00 WinBook

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2001

GC, I love my Compaq notebook computer--except they are notorious for battery problems. I've had this thing about a year and a half and can't justify a new one yet, but in a year or so I might be able to. I hope by then someone will have a machine with a reliable battery system. It's a business expense for me because I work as a part-time stringer and use my computer heavily for work, so I think I ought to make it about three years between machines.

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2001

I'm real close to replacing my aging laptop, especially at these prices. My current laptop never really survived the Bill Gates y2k upgrades that I mostly did for security reasons. Haven't been able to access e-mail since that time, and it's deathly slow.

What I want is one with customized software. Because I don't want to have it contaminated by AOL, and lots of other stuff I just don't need.

At one time I called Dell and it sounded hopeful. I think I need more memory than the Inspiron, but it might be a starting point. Anyone have any recommendations? I think I want to do it by mail order, because I haven't been happy with the software packages I have seen on the machines in the stores. Any recommendations one way or the other, folks?

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2001


Sweetie, who knows about these things, is on his second Dell--not a notebook. He's hooked. (He's gone through Texas Instruments, Commodore regular, Commodore Amiga, no-name IBM lookalikes, and now Dell. Plus all the different ones he's used in his various jobs.) I wouldn't recommend a Compaq until they fix the battery thing. If I remember (ha!), I'll dig out Consumer Reports and see what they recommend.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2001

Has to be a laptop.

I've had a Toshiba, and I'm really addicted to the mouse pointer button thingy on the keyboard, but I'll switch if I really, really have to.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2001



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