Compaq Computer Corp is dumping its Contura notebooks for the new Armada line in an attempt to claw its way back to the top of the portables market. The company yesterday launched its new Armada notebooks targeting the consumer market for the first time, admitting it had so far ignored the low-end and retail market which it says makes up 25% of all notebook sales. Compaq conceded that some of the Armada models are similar to the Conturas, but said the Armadas are significantly beefed up compared to the older line. Compaq will still offer its LTE line of notebooks, which it also updated this week (see below). Mike Winkler, who moved from number one notebook vendor Toshiba Corp to head Compaq’s portables division last year, admitted the firm had taken its eye off the ball and dropped from the top notebook sales spot in 1993 to the number three spot last year. Compaq will now target the retail channel as well as third party mail order, Winkler said. The company will also focus on small and medium-sized businesses which it says represent 40% of notebook sales. Compaq’s brand strategy is curious; it claims that independent market research showed users prefer the Compaq brand three to one over Toshiba, which it is now planning to overtake. However, it has still chosen a sub-branding strategy with Armada – just how much better that plan will work than the sub-branding strategy of the now-out-the-door Contura line remains to be seen. Compaq will launch an advertising campaign to support its Armada and LTE lines today. It says its Contura products are almost out of the channel, since it cut prices 17% in November to clear shelves(CI No 2,791). Expect Compaq to add handheld devices under the Armada banner in the future. The LTE and Armada machines ship this week with volume in July. Compaq also released a PC card, the SpeedPaq 288 Telephony Modem, claiming its the first 28,800 bps cellular capable modem with advanced telephony features.
Compaq’s Armada 4100 model is a 1.5-inch slim notebook which weighs about 5lbs and is aimed at users who want high performance. It comes with 133MHz, 120MHz and 100MHz mobile Pentium processors with 810Mb and 1Gb hard drive with memory expandable to 40 and 48Mb and an 11.3-inch color STN or 11.8-inch color TFT display. The Armada 4100 has a touchpad that interchanges with an optical trackball as well as a removable integrated disk drive that adds about 1lb and will cost about $2,600 to $4,600. The Armada 110 entry-level notebook has a 100MHz Pentium processor, 10.4-inch color thin film transistor screen in both dual scan and active matrix models, an 810Mb hard drive, optical 19mm trackball and is priced between $1,900 and $2,300. The LTE series has been updated at both ends. The new LTE 5380 at the high end has a 133MHz Pentium processor, 1024 x 768 resolution on a 12.1-inch color TFT panel, a 2.16Gb hard drive and 16Mb of RAM and will cost about $6,600. The low-end LTE 5250 has has a 120MHz Pentium processor, 16Mb RAM, 10.4-inch color TFT SVGA panel with 800 x 600 resolution and an
810Mb hard drive and costs about $4,200. The other low-end model, the LTE 5150 has a 100MHz Pentium processor, 8Mb RAM, 11.3 color STN SVGA panel, an 810Mb hard drive and another 8Mb RAM installed in the option slot and costs about $3,200.
