HP is offering college students a new lightweight, low-cost option, the Mini 1104, which runs a low-power, dual-core Intel Atom processor and starts at $399.
Hewlett-Packard
would like to introduce college students everywhere to the Mini Educator, a new
lightweight Windows 7-running laptop starting at $399.
The
HP Mini 1104 pairs a 1.6GHz Intel Atom dual-core processor and an Intel NM10
Express Chipset-which HP officials said makes the Mini run cooler and use less
power-with a 10.1-inch display, a 93 percent full (and spill-resistant)
keyboard, a weight of 2.78 pounds, a hard drive accelerometer that can act fast
to protect data during a fall, and a number of other expected features.
There's
a VGA Webcam, for example, with mono speakers, a digital microphone and a
microphone jack-for asking parents face-to-face for some extra spending money
or Skyping with long-distance beaus. For getting down to business, there's
support for 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0, and the option for integrated
HP Mobile Broadband.
The
Mini 1104 also comes with a TPM 1.2 embedded security chip, for protecting
data, and Computrace Pro software for tracking down a lost or stolen device.
There's the option of 1GB or 2GB of double-data rate 3 (DDR3) memory; 320GB of
internal storage; SD, SDHC and SDXC expansion slots; and the option of a three-
or six-cell lithium-ion battery-the latter of which is good for 9 hours of go
time, according to HP.
Making
it easy to slip into backpacks and shoulder bags, the Mini, in a classic black,
measures 7.52 by 10.55 by 0.89 inches.
Consumer
sales have not been kind to PC makers, which are increasingly targeting student
segments-
Intel
recently also introduced tiny notebooks featuring its dual-core Atom processors,
though its Classmate PCs are more geared for the K-12 set. Apple, taking a
different bent, is also aggressively going after the education market, and
earlier this month announced iBooks 2,
an
initiative it expects will bring a "new textbook experience" to the
iPad.
On
Jan. 11, Gartner announced that worldwide PC shipments had fallen by 1.4
percent during the fourth quarter of 2011, to 92.2 million units.
"Continuously
low consumer PC demand resulted in weak holiday PC shipments," Mikako
Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, said in a statement, adding that
economic uncertainty in Western Europe and hard-disk drive (HDD) shortages due
to flooding in Thailand were also contributors.
HP
was the only top-three vendor to post a decline in year-over-year shipments-it
fell 16.2 percent, compared with 23 percent growth from fast-rising No. 2 vendor,
Lenovo-but nonetheless managed to remain the No. 1 vendor worldwide.
Kitagawa
reported that in addition to aggressive pricing from competitors, new HP CEO
Meg Whitman had to clear up "some confusion surrounding its PC
business," which
previous
CEO Leo Apotheker had considered spinning off.
On
Oct. 27, after taking time to consider the matter-under the staring eyeballs of
an impatient industry-Whitman announced in a statement that "HP
objectively evaluated the strategic, financial and operational impact of
spinning off [its Personal Systems Group]. It's clear after our analysis that
keeping PSG within HP is right for customers and partners, right for shareholders,
and right for employees."
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