For long time Acer and Asus have been associated with the lower end of the laptop and netbook market, Asus most of all, simply because they grabbed the mini laptop market and made it their own. However, Acer too has featured in the bargain basement adverts of most retailers and now all of that is about to change.
It is being reported that Acer and Asus are looking to venture into the luxury end of the laptop and netbook market. For many consumers this small sector of the market may not have even existed yet it has been there, slowly building a reputation and now, is this the time when luxury and high end branded equipment begins to appear on the shelves of the retail stores?
For Acer, it will be the Ferrari branded 11.6 inch laptop that takes pole position in the company’s race to the chequered flag at the end of 2010. The Ferrari version of the Acer One is currently planned with a 1.2 GHz AMD Athlon X2 L310 processor running things. Although it has been recently connected with the AMD Fusion processor (Ontario) following an announcement between Acer and the chipmaker AMD.
Asus also have an exciting brand name and logo to place on the lid, with the Lamborghini Eee PC VX6, this will run the 1.8 GHz Intel Atom D525 dual core processor, with up to 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 320GB hard disk and as expected NVIDIA ION graphics.
These models are supposedly upmarket when compared with the current range that both Acer and Asus have on offer, but are they. This is the question that should be on the consumer’s lips, when they are out looking to buy a new laptop or netbook.
Therefore, are these computers really high end quality, or is the price of around $600 plus mainly going towards paying for the privilege of having a supercars logo on the lid?
The launch of these luxury laptops is set for the last quarter of the year; only then will it be known if brand names are worth the extra expense.
