Bargain-basement PC vendor, emachines Inc, is to launch its first laptop model by mid-December. The price tag of $1,000 will be much nearer the low-end starting price of other vendors’ models than the sub-$600 PCs that first made the company’s name. A company official declined to comment on pricing policy, citing the quiet period the company is in since filing for an initial public offering of its shares in August.
Irvine, California-based emachines launched a more-powerful PC model for $900 last month. The company has operated under a pared-down gross profit margin of just 3.6% to turn out its ultra-cheap PC products, according to its pre-IPO filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This compares to market- leader, Compaq Computer Corp’s 22.6% gross margin.
Emachines is the trading vehicle of South Korean technology giants, TriGem Computer Corp and Korea Data Systems Co, which respectively make its computers and monitors. A spokesperson said the 44MHz laptop would feature an AMD K62 400 processor and 32Mb of RAM. It will be fitted with a 56k V90 fax modem.
