H-P offers low-cost, mini laptops
One more of the world’s biggest technology companies is clamoring to enter the growing market for pint-sized computers targeted mainly for pint-sized customers.
Hewlett-Packard Co., the No. 1 seller of personal computers worldwide, said Monday it’s throwing its weight behind a new class of miniaturized laptops, a fledgling market already populated with products from Intel Corp., the world’s largest semiconductor company, and Asustek Computers Inc., the world’s largest maker of computer motherboards.
The machines are so new the industry hasn’t settled on a name for the low-cost and scaled-down laptops used primarily for surfing the Internet and performing other basic functions like word processing.
Intel has labeled them “netbooks,” and it expects more than 50 million netbooks to be in circulation by 2011.
HP executives say their new machines, which go on sale later this month, are an important piece of the Palo Alto-based company’s effort to build market share in schools, where machines had to be smaller and cheaper without losing too many functions.
The companies also expect adults to like the idea of two laptops – a lightweight one just for Web browsing on the go and the full-power machine for the home or office. But industry executives acknowledge that the market is untested and that no one knows what demand will be once the machines are deployed widely.
HP’s foray comes in the form of a new computer called a “Mini-Note” that weighs less than 3 pounds with a screen that measures 8.9 inches diagonally. The machines start at under $500 for a Linux-based model. Prices go up for Windows Vista models with faster processors.
• Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. said Monday its first-quarter earnings plummeted 54 percent as higher raw material and energy costs and a weaker dollar cut into results.
Net income dropped to $303 million, or 37 cents per share, during the first three months of the year, compared with $662 million, or 75 cents per share, during the same period last year, the company said.
Sales fell nearly 7 percent to $7.38 billion, from $7.91 billion a year earlier.
Excluding the impact of restructuring and taxes, operating income was 44 cents per share, down from 79 cents per share a year ago. The swooning dollar lowered profits by $68 million, or 8 cents per share, on a quarter-by-quarter basis.
The results failed to meet some Wall Street expectations. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial, on average, forecast earnings of 48 cents per share on revenue of $7.18 billion.