SAN FRANCISCO (02/14/2000) - Micron Electronics Inc. targets small business and consumers with the release Monday of a family of MicronPC.com TransPort LT lightweight notebooks.
The notebooks weigh less than 5 pounds, start at $1999, and offer a range of processor choices and, soon, of displays.
The TransPort LT is highly configurable, especially for a sub-5-pound product, says Jay White, notebook product manger. It offers a selection of CPUs, from Intel's new 500-MHz mobile Celeron (introduced Monday) up to the 650-MHz Mobile Pentium III with SpeedStep technology.
As an example configuration, the TransPort LT with a 500-MHz Mobile Celeron, 64MB of memory, a 4GB hard drive, a 24X CD-ROM, a V.90 modem, and Windows 98 Second Edition will sell for $1999.
A TransPort LT with a PIII-450, 64MB of memory, a 6GB hard drive, a 24X CD-ROM drive, a V.90 modem, and Windows NT/Windows 2000 sells for $2199.
An even faster TransPort LT, with a PIII-600 with SpeedStep technology, 128MB of memory, a 12GB hard drive, a 4X DVD drive, a V.90 modem, and Windows 98 Second Edition, sells for $2699.
All the models above currently ship with a 12.1-inch active-matrix display. By March the company will offer a 13.3-inch active-matrix display on most models for an extra $200, White says.
The TransPort LT line joins MicronPC.com's two existing notebook products. The recently introduced TransPort ZX is a desktop replacement unit; the older Trek 2 product is geared mostly toward government use.
Pretty and Functional
Micron notebooks have never exactly been known for good looks, White says. The company wanted to change that with its new products, and this is the "first notebook series where we looked at aesthetics," he says.
Details such as the magnesium base and lid and special rubberized plastic make this notebook MicronPC.com's best-looking unit to date, he says.
It's not all about looks. The unit includes a mini-PCI bus, which means in addition to the V.90 modem, customers can order a built-in Ethernet port. Each unit also includes 8MB of video memory, which is notable for a unit this size, White says.
The notebooks also provide an external Universal Serial Bus drive bay that holds the modular floppy drive so you can concurrently operate it and the modular CD-ROM drive. Also, an e-mail LED lets you know a message has arrived, even when the unit is in its power-saving sleep mode.
Features such as these, in a nice-looking package, should help the company attract new customers to its notebook line, says Tim Bajarin, mobile analyst for Creative Strategies.
"Micron wants to be more aggressive in the mobile space," he says. This product should draw some attention, and will likely appeal to small business users who are buying portable computers in increasing numbers.
Bajarin says the Celeron-based unit in particular should be attractive to many users. "At $1999, that's a pretty good deal for a 500-MHz Celeron," he says.