Notebook makers preparing solutions for low-price PC market

Yen Ting Chen, Taipei; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES [Monday 5 November 2007]

With the Asustek Computer's Eee PC bringing up the trend for low-price PCs in the market, notebook makers including Inventec and Compal Electronics are both preparing solutions for the MID (mobile Internet device) market with target prices of US$500, according to sources at notebook makers.

Asustek's Eee PC has proven that it is currently not possible to achieve a price point of US$199 in the consumer market. With the price of the highest specified Eee PC likely to be around US$430 by the end of this year, the price gap between Eee PC and Quanta Computer/Compal's MID products is getting smaller. Therefore in the future, if MIDs are positioned as low-price PC products, they would greatly impact Eee PC sales.

Quanta was the earliest to step into the low-price PC market with the OLPC (one laptop per child), and the company will continue to invest in the educational PC segments for low-price PCs, despite that the OLPC project is yet to realize its aims. Quanta predicts the low-price PC market will not cool off, since the trend is there, noted the sources.

On the other hand, although Compal is not optimistic over low-price PC products, it has still landed some orders and is preparing to enter mass production in the first quarter of 2008.

Inventec started working on small-size notebook products in 2004 following the acquisition of a development team in Japan and has already developed several small-size notebook models priced close to US$500.