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'Thin `n light' notebook PC? So is my wallet!

By Anand Parthasarathy

BANGALORE MARCH 12. Even as Intel was today announcing in Delhi and elsewhere around the world, the availability of its much touted `Centrino' technology for mobile computing, Korean and Taiwanese manufacturers were offering the first notebook models with the Centrino combo: the new Pentium M chip, the related chip set and the wireless `WiFi' connectivity.

Almost simultaneously, Samsung and Acer launched ultra `thin `n light' platforms — albeit at stiff prices by current notebook standards. Samsung's three models came at between $2200 and $3000, which at present duty structures would cost over Rs. 2 lakhs in India.

Early product reports, of Centrino-based notebook prototypes released in the U.S. by Dell, Gateway and others, say the new devices do indeed deliver a lot of bang — by way of much-reduced power consumption and faster handling of bulky multimedia applications such as DVD playing — but it costs a lot of bucks too.

So what does this development hold out for the Indian customer? Notebooks in any case are an elite thing here and this relatively high-end of the PC market is not as price sensitive as the desktop business. But last year did see an opening-up of this sector, with many models available around the half-a-lakh-of-rupees mark. This was because, notebooks tended to come with a variety of chips — Intel, AMD, Transmeta or PowerPC. Some combined the Intel mobile Pentium processor with highly competitive third party chip sets from Korea and Taiwan, to drive down the notebook end price.

The `Centrino inside' tag can be used only by notebooks which have both Intel's Pentium M chip and its own 855 chipset as well as its proprietary version of the 802.11b wireless connection — a canny marketing ploy that is seemingly geared to discourage notebook makers from using cheaper third party chipsets and Wifi cards, if they want to cash in on the customer's demand for a Centrino machine.

This may be great for Intel — but sadly, it has not brought nearer the day when notebooks become more affordable by the average Indian PC user. As always we are offered more performance — for more price.

For now, `thin `n light' may be as much a description of the new-generation Centrino-fired notebook, as of the state of one's wallet after the transaction.

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