Filipino-branded laptops may be out soon
By Elizabeth Sanchez-Lacson
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 18:26:00 10/05/2008
Filed Under: Computing & Information Technology, Hardware, Technology (general)
AFTER MYPHONE, THERE’S MYSCREEN and then, most likely, myBook.
Consumer electronics manufacturing firm Solid Group Inc. of the Lim family -- which is making a comeback through Filipino-branded, low-cost mobile phones -- is now studying the possibility of introducing Filipino-branded notebook personal computers.
SGI president David Lim told the Inquirer that SGI was thinking of coming up with its own brand of laptops by the first quarter of next year.
“The laptop market is touchy because chip sets keep changing. We are more careful (in venturing into this) because the rate of obsolescence is so fast,” Lim said.
In order to make it big in the consumer market, he said a company had to be in the three Cs -- communication, consumer electronics and computers.
Although he did not give details of the plan yet, Lim hinted that “myBook” would be similar to the Asus mini laptops but with more power.
Agence France-Presse reported in June that two major Taiwan computer sellers launched low-priced mini laptops, both forecasting the shipment of millions of units this year.
Asustek Computer Inc. recently announced improvements in its Eee PC family. The new products, called “Eee PC” 901/1000, run on Wi-Fi 802.11n, an enhanced Internet service. This means a high-definition 30-minute film can be downloaded within a minute, the company said. The new “Eee PC” family members, which are priced between $560 and $660, have up to 2GB of memory and 40GB of storage.
They are also powered by a battery with a life span of up to 7.8 hours.
In the meantime, Taiwan’s leading computer vendor Acer Inc. also launched its first low-priced mini laptop “Aspire one.” Its price ranged from $399 to $499.
SGI recently launched its offering of LCD television sets, under the brand myScreen.
SGI is also set to launch 10 models of its myPhone mobile phone series. One of these new models will feature an AM radio for as low as P2,000 per unit. SGI will also be introducing four or five dual SIM phones, which will be sold from P3,500 to P8,500.
It will also introduce a new music phone by this month.
Among its myPhone models are the “Touch Series” or touch phones such as T11 (multimedia phone), T22 Duo (dual active sim phone) and the T33 (GPS Pocket PC Phone). MyPhone also launched S22 Duo and B31, a single SIM music phone.
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