How Do You Categorize Notebooks?
R. Krause - September 25, 2000

Overview

The notebook computer market has become one of the remaining battlegrounds for computer manufacturers. The Intel-based server market has consolidated to four major manufacturers (Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM). The desktop PC market, although highly competitive, has seen similar consolidation, and the breadth of offerings has narrowed in recent years. The nearest thing to vitality here was the advent of two products: (1) the Internet/Information appliance, which is still in its formative stages, thus not yet a battleground; and (2) the super-low-price PC, epitomized by eMachines offerings. The eMachines model, however, is merely a pricing difference, not a technological one. This consigns it to the idea of gaining desktop market share through reduced prices/margins, which is (to us) not very interesting...