Fujitsu Ltd, Japan’s largest computer-services provider, is considering selling low-priced laptop computers in Asia.
“The timing and sales volume have yet to be decided,” Masao Sakamoto, a spokesman at Tokyo-based Fujitsu, said by telephone yesterday.
Fujitsu will start selling notebook PCs with a 10-inch or smaller display and Intel Corp’s Atom processor, priced at about US$500 this autumn in China and Hong Kong, the Nikkei Shimbun reported earlier, without citing a source.
PC makers that use the Atom chips, which consume less power, can offer portable models for as low as US$250, or less than 25 percent of the usual cost. The average price of a notebook computer in the quarter ended March 31 was US$1,100, researcher IDC said.
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) chief executive officer Jerry Shen (沈振來), whose low-cost Eee PC model uses an Atom chip, said last month that low-cost notebook shipments would amount to between 10 million and 15 million laptops this year and his company would account for around half of that market.
Acer Inc, the world’s second-largest maker of notebooks, said last month it expects to sell 7 million of its “Aspire one” low-cost laptops this year.
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