Vendor Vies for Notebook Prize

Compaq has vowed that it will grab back the number one slot in the notebook market despite the dominance of Toshiba and IBM.

The announcement came at the same time as research company Dataquest claimed that IBM had taken the number two slot, jumping over Compaq, for sales during the Q4 1996 in the UK. Toshiba retained its dominant position as number one.

Mike Winkler, group vice president of PC products at Compaq, said: ?Compaq is totally dedicated to regaining our number one position in notebooks in a ferociously competitive market. We will do that by innovating and providing the right kind of products on a broad line sold through all channels.

?We will have attractive price points across the spectrum and we will set the industry standards for quality. We will also combine internal and external sourcing.?

Winkler claimed that Compaq had already made ?excellent progress?, and said the vendor was already number one many key segments. He insisted that Compaq was number one in five unnamed European countries.

The push into notebooks comes one week after Compaq released its low-end Armada 1500 machine. The notebook is supplied with a built-in AC adaptor, a 10-speed CD-Rom, hard drive, 33.6Kbps modem and integrated software.

Winkler also announced the release of PC cards with Ethernet and ISDN capability.