Laptop price-drop continues

A quick peek at the line-ups of new laptops scheduled for an 22 October roll-out from HP and Toshiba make it clear the prices of mainstream and higher-end laptops are diving, even as the technology gets better, reports CNET News.

"There's a new reality in laptop pricing," says Bob O'Donnell, an analyst at market-researcher IDC. "It's getting harder and harder to sell anything over $800."

O'Donnell cited a data point that showed the average selling price of notebooks falling below desktops briefly in retail.

Dell has introduced the Vostro 430 desktop computer, which it says starts at a low price and can be optioned with powerful components, reports SlashGear.

The new Vostro 430 starts at $699 and is available globally. The machine comes with pre-installed video conferencing software and has dual display and multi-touch technology built in. The desktop is optimised for Windows 7, due out in a few weeks.

The Vostro 430 can be optioned with Intel Core i5 or Core i7 CPUs and discrete graphics from NVIDIA or ATI.

Small businesses' desires to cut costs and improve productivity are helping to drive sales in some traditional hardware categories, states Channel Web.

The three fastest-growing categories for D&H Distributing in the third quarter were notebooks, network security (hardware and software) and servers.

"These are things that hit critical mass and had widespread adoption in the enterprise three to five years ago," Dan Schwab, co-president of D&H Distributing says.