HP Sees Early Signs of Stronger Demand for Consumer PCs

From PC World: Hewlett-Packard rolled out its Pavilion dv2 laptop in Singapore on Thursday, with company executives noting signs that some consumers are ready to resume spending on computers.

The company hopes its latest laptop will help draw these consumers out. Based on a 1.5GHz Athlon Neo processor from Advanced Micro Devices, the sleek dv2 has a 12.1-inch screen that's slightly larger than the small netbooks that have recently proved so popular with consumers. Yet, the laptop's relatively small size means that it's still easy to carry around.

Priced at S$1,299 (US$861) with an external DVD-ROM drive, the dv2 costs roughly the same as a high-end netbook like the Sony Vaio P, but it's got a lot more processing power thanks to a chipset with more powerful graphics than anything currently available in systems that use Intel's Atom. An ATI discrete graphics chip with even better graphics capabilities is also available as an option.

HP is hoping that consumers in Singapore and elsewhere who have held off on buying new computers recently will respond to the combination of the dv2's price and its features, which are closer to that of a mainstream laptop than a stripped-down netbook.

"We could have launched this product at a higher price and gotten the brand position that we desire, but it would never have been able to trigger the market and demand that we want," said Chin Hon Cheng, vice president of HP's Personal Systems Group for Asia-Pacific and Japan.

View: Article @ Source Site