Intel unveiled the winner and runner up in the $1 million competition at this week's Intel Developer Forum in Beijing. The winner will receive up to $300,000 to help offset the costs of enabling the mass production of the Lluon, and $400,000 more for co-marketing and promotional activities with Intel.
The runner up was the Asono Merium System from Norway-based Mesiro. The light tan. rectangular short tower has an on/off switch, and some ports for plug-ins on the top of the machine. Mesiro will receive up to $300,000 to help offset the cost of starting mass production.
The Lluon won for its "black crystal" design that made the machine pretty enough for any stylish living room. As part of the competition requirements, the machine runs on an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and leverage's Intel Viiv technology for multimedia playback. The Lluon includes a remote control and two matching speakers.
Computer makers are abandoning the traditional beige-box design for more stylish products meant to entice buyers to take the machines into the living room for feeding music, video, and pictures to home entertainment centers. Such a move is important in order to try to spur sales with PCs that go far beyond their old roles as an office tool. Hewlett-Packard, for example, said this week it was giving its line of consumer desktops a makeover to make them more attractive.
Intel judged contestants on their mix of style, acoustics, functionality, and features for digital home entertainment. The company is holding another design contest this year, and is scheduled to announce the winner September 2008 at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.