San Francisco, October 30, 2008
Mint
Hewlett-Packard Co on Wednesday will unveil a new mini-notebook in a move to gain ground in the fastest-growing PC category, which until now has been dominated by its smaller rivals.
Netbooks - ultraportable, inexpensive laptops designed for Web browsing and light tasks - have taken the PC market by storm this year, with smaller computer firms such as Acer Inc and Asustek Computer Inc leading the charge.
HP’s sleek new Mini 1000, costing about $400, is significantly different from the company’s first netbook release, launched last spring. It uses Intel Corp’s Atom processor, and is also substantially less expensive, signaling that the price war in netbooks that some analysts have been predicting may have begun.
Although still a fraction of the overall PC market, netbooks’ popularity could lead to changes in the pecking order of PC makers and cut into margins and profitability as average selling prices come down.
In the third quarter, Acer gained ground on HP and Dell Inc, with a big assist from mini-notebooks.
According to industry tracker IDC, Acer’s total shipments leaped more than 50 percent, and the company’s share of the overall PC market climbed more than 3 percentage points to 12.5%.
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