Gateway returns to ultra-portable market
Published: 30 Mar 2006 09:45 BST
Gateway is returning to the ultra-portable notebook market after a two-year absence, with a 12.1-inch notebook that weighs around 1.5kg.
The company is expected to unveil the E-100M and NX100X on Thursday. The notebooks are almost identical, but the E-100M targets business customers, while the NX100X will be aimed at home users.
Ultra-portable notebooks are defined as systems that weigh no more than 1.8kg and feature a 12-inch display, said Richard Shim, an analyst with IDC. This year IDC expects 8.7 percent of all notebooks to fall into this category, up from 7.9 percent last year. Gateway cited that modest increase in demand as one of the reasons it's returning to this market.
However, these notebooks are also important for PC companies looking to boost their margins, Shim said. Ultra-portable notebooks usually command a premium price because of the engineering needed to extend battery life and cram performance into such a small package, he said.
Travelling executives have traditionally been the main customers for these small notebooks in the U.S. But as the premium for an ultra-portable grows smaller, U.S. consumers are joining their counterparts around the world by taking another look at small PCs, Shim said.
Both the NX100X and the E-100M will start at $1,399 (£804.90), but the NX100X comes with an external multiformat DVD-R/RW drive that costs $199 extra for business customers of the E-100M. However, business customers often purchase new notebooks in large quantities and are likely to receive discounts on their E-100M purchases, Gateway said. Information on UK pricing or availability was not available at time of going to press.
Both notebooks come with Intel's U1300 Ultra Low Voltage Core Solo processor, which was previously unannounced by the chimaker. The notebooks will be available for order at Gateway's Web site on Thursday, but they aren't expected to ship until the end of April.
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