Forces are pulling two ways in the low-end market, and while users of the Motorola family of chips are in general able to get away with price increases reflecting the high cost of memory chips, in the Intel-based personal computer market, fierce competition renders such a luxury impossible, and margins just have to go. Accordingly, citing competitive pressures, Hewlett Packard Co has cut US list prices on 80286-based HP Vectra ES and ES/12 personal computers by up to $400, with the base price for the ES PC down to $2,000. There is $400 off all 8MHz ES PCs, $200 off some 12MHz ES/12 PCs. It made cuts of up to $1,800 on high-end Vectras in July.
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