JEDDAH, 25 February 2005 — New “Express” notebooks packed with entertainment and business features, raging from enhanced graphics to better responsiveness and support for greater security options, were launched by LG Electronics here yesterday. The new series is based on the latest Intel Centrino mobile technology, formerly code named Sonoma, for notebook PCs.
“Equipped with a Mobile Intel chipset, formerly code named Alviso, the super slim and light notebooks are powered by the latest Pentium M processor with a front side bus,” Timothy Kim, account coordinator of the Seoul-based LG Electronics Inc., told a press conference.
The next generation data bus, PCI Express, supports LG Express notebooks, he said, adding that this high-speed interconnect is designed for high performance graphics cards and fast disk drives and enables notebooks to use Double Data Rate 2 RAM which until now has been limited to desktops, thus increasing the data transfer speed.
“LG Express notebooks offer a total mobile computing solution that fulfils the demands of users at all levels and purposes. We’ve a range of wide-screen and regular notebooks in a number of ergonomic designs and form factors. These mobiles support key mobile computing tenets like powerful processing capabilities, enhanced battery life, low power consumption, high density audio quality, higher bandwidth of memory, and ‘every time everywhere’ wireless access, placing laptops on equal footing with the newest desktops,” C.K. Cho, general manager of LG for Saudi Arabia, said.
With the restructuring of its mobility division, notebooks are a priority product for LG this year. Worldwide, the company sold notebooks worth $25 million in 2004 and is targeting sales of $100 million this year. Even though the company has a long history of notebook manufacturing as notebook contract manufacturer, LG started selling notebooks under its own brand name only in 2003.
According to market analysts, notebook shipments will rise 16 percent to 54.5 million units in 2005 and consumer notebooks will total just more than 20 million units, up almost 20 percent from 2004.
Nearly 90,000 notebooks were sold in 2004 in this part of the world. It is expected to increase to 110,00 this year. LG’s local share accounted for over 8,000 units in 2004. “LG notebooks have been well-received in the market. It is an Intel Validation Partner in 2005, which gives the company early access to Intel’s technology and a time to market advantage.
Apart from its exemplary functionality and build quality, users have favored LG’s suite of security and system management utilities.
The powerful memory module not only enhances performance but also increases the overall system stability substantially. Various models in the series have special features. The LM 60/70 Express is an ultra thin-and-light design with a 14.1 inch/15 inch wide screen display, a blue wireless indicator to display wireless LAN status and convenient network settings.
The LS 70 combines portability and performance to function as a desktop replacement and caters to users looking for a notebook PC that offers multimedia capabilities.