Compaq Computer Corp yesterday duly launched into the subnotebook market with the 3 lbs 8 oz Contura Aero, which should lead to a new round of price cutting in the small portables market since it starts at $1,400, up to $1,000 less than comparable machines from IBM Corp and Toshiba Corp. The 80486SX-based Contura Aero 4/25 starts at $1,400 with monochrome display. The 4/33C colour models start at $2,200, and the company says they are about 45% lighter and 33% smaller than most notebook personal computers; the optional nickel metal hydride rechargeable battery runs for up to six hours. They come standard with 4Mb expandable to 12Mb, and disks range from 84Mb to 250Mb and have a single PCMCIA slot. The retail models will come bundled with the Microsoft Corp Works for Windows.
