InformationWeek

November 10, 1997

Critical Notebooks

HP and IBM see portables as key to winning corporate users

otebook vendors are preparing their new lines for this month's Comdex/Fall show in Las Vegas. The offerings include thin and light designs, Intel's Tillamook low-power mobile Pentium processor, large active-matrix screens, large-capacity hard drives, and 20X CD-ROM drives.

Acer America, Dell Computer, Digital Equipment, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, NEC, and Toshiba are among the vendors readying new models. HP's systems are part of the company's effort to become a major corporate supplier of notebooks, much as it is for desktops and servers. "More and more corporations are standardizing on one or two vendors to supply their PCs, servers, and portables, so we have to have a solid portable lineup," says Robert Langerman, HP's marketing manager for the OmniBook line.

HP's OmniBook 3000 CTX series notebooks come with an Intel Pentium MMX running at 200 MHz or 233 MHz. The 233-MHz version, with a 4-Gbyte hard drive, 32 Mbytes of RAM, and an optional CD -ROM drive, starts at $4,500.

IBM also sees notebooks as key to winning corporate users. "More corporations are looking at mobile systems as their primary PC," says Steve Ward, general manager of IBM's mobile systems group. "That means you've got to hit the right combination of features, new technology, price, and reliability." IBM will offer the ThinkPad 560X, a slimline notebook with a 233-MHz Pentium MMX, a 4-Gbyte hard drive, 32 Mbytes of RAM, and a 12.1-inch screen, for $4,200.

Dell will demonstrate new Latitude CP notebooks based on the same 233-MHz processor. Toshiba will also add models based on the Tillamook chip, including the Tecra 750DVD with DVD-ROM drive and a 13.3-inch screen, which is expected to be priced at $5,799.

Acer will add several notebook PCs. Among them will be the TravelMate 7120, priced at $3,999, with a 200-MHz Pentium MMX, a 12.1-inch active matrix display, and 32 Mbytes of RAM. The $4,799 TravelMate 7130TE contains a 233-MHz Pentium MMX and a 13.3-inch thin-film transis tor display.

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