Desktop and notebook merge into ... a Desknote

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August 27, 2002 (IDG News Service) --

The i-Buddie 4.

It looks like a notebook, it runs like a notebook, and you carry it around like a notebook. But at a typical price of about $1,000, it sure doesn't burn a hole in your pocket like a notebook.
The device in question, Desknote, is the brainchild of Taipei, Taiwan-based Elitegroup Computer Systems Co., which is betting that users will buy into its philosophy of a portable computer at a desktop price.
The company is gambling that the Desknote line of portable computers could reshape the way users and vendors think about notebook PCs -- and preliminary research from IDC suggests Elitegroup might be right.
At first glance, the Desknote looks like a notebook PC. But there's a difference: It isn't designed for power-free use, so it isn't equipped with an internal battery. And it uses the desktop version of processors from Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
The absence of an internal battery shouldn't be much of a drawback for most users. Weighing in at nearly 6 lb., the Desknote is likely to spend most of its time on a desk rather than on the road. For users who need battery power, Elitegroup offers external battery packs and car chargers as optional accessories.
Despite the lack of a battery, the Desknote's combination of high-end components and low price could very well take sales from other notebooks that primarily function as desktop replacements, including more expensive high-end models like Dell Computer Corp.'s Latitude C840 notebook.
Boasting a 2-GHz Mobile Pentium 4 processor from Intel, the C840 offers high-end features that other notebooks don't: a 15-in. thin film transistor LCD screen, 256MB of double data rate synchronous dynamic RAM, an eight-speed DVD drive and a 20GB hard disk.
But there are drawbacks to buying a notebook like the C840. Weighing in at 7.4 lb., it isn't built for users who travel frequently or plan to carry their laptop around with them on a daily basis. That means users are less likely to rely on the notebook's battery, which minimizes its advantage over the Desknote.
The C840 and other high-end notebooks don't come cheap. Notebook components, like the mobile version of the Pentium 4, come at a hefty premium compared with their desktop counterparts. For example, the 2-GHz Mobile Pentium 4 costs $637, more than three times the $193 price of the 2-GHz desktop chip. It's no surprise, then, that the C840 carries a heavyweight price of $2,495.
And then there's the question of availability. Intel introduced the 2-GHz Mobile Pentium 4 on June 24, while the desktop version has been around since Aug. 27, 2001. The Desknote offers an alternative for those who don't feel like waiting a year to get the same level of performance as a desktop and don't want to pay extra for the privilege.
By using desktop versions of chips like the Pentium 4 and other components, Elitegroup is able to match the specifications of high-end notebooks like the C840 at a steep discount: A 2-GHz Pentium 4-based Desknote costs about $1,200, or less, depending on the exact configuration. You can even get a Desknote running the 2.8-GHz Pentium 4 if you want an added boost in performance.
With specs and prices like that, it's no wonder that users in Asia are starting to warm to the Desknote.
During the first half of this year, Desknote sales in Asia, excluding Japan, reached 43,000 units, with sales primarily in China, the Philippines and Taiwan, according to Kitty Fok, research director at IDC Asia-Pacific. The machines are even popping up for sale in more developed Asian markets such as technologically advanced Singapore.
So far, the Desknote represents a small percentage of the 1.49 million notebooks that were sold in Asia during that period, according to IDC. But those numbers should be enough to make major notebook vendors take notice -- especially if Desknote sales continue to rise, and the large price gap remains between notebook components and their desktop counterparts.
Signs indicate that interest in Desknote-like machines is already building among vendors in emerging markets like China. Legend Group Ltd., for example, has developed a Desknote-like notebook that will hit the market there in coming months, Fok said.

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