Acer goes low cost

Competition in the ultra-mobile PC market has reached a fever pitch with Taiwan's leading computer maker Acer becoming the latest vendor to join the fray, says Manila Bulletin Online.

At the recent Computex 2008 in Taipei, the world's second biggest computer trade show, Acer debuted its new low-cost computer, Aspire one, which the company claims is an all-new communication device designed to provide a true mobile and wireless experience through continuous access to the Internet, no matter where you are.

At the product launch, Acer chairman Jeng-tang Wang said that, after a comprehensive study of the market, Acer's findings confirmed that a product like the Aspire one would be welcomed by customers ranging from professional users to beginners.

Taiwan's Quanta Computer said on Tuesday it expects global notebook shipments to grow around 25% this year as consumer demand remains healthy, reports Reuters.

Quanta also said it expects global low-cost notebook, or Netbook, shipments to hit around 10 million this year, as more PC makers try to tap into growing demand for smaller, cheaper PCs from emerging markets.

"Low-cost PCs have seen a huge transformation this year. Demand is very popular and the line once separating regular notebooks and these Netbooks have begun to merge," Quanta's co-founder and vice-chairman CC Leung told Reuters.

HP Middle East introduced a new business desktop designed with the environment in mind, says MySolutionInfo.com.

The HP Compaq dc5800 Business PC provides a variety of environmental features that allows it to meet the most stringent environmental requirements of the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) Gold registry.

HP currently tops the industry in the number of Gold-listed products in the EPEAT registry, which helps businesses evaluate, compare and select technology products based on their environmental attributes, such as meeting the US Environmental Protection Agency's latest Energy Star energy-efficiency requirements.