IBM Corp is hoping to move up the food chain in the market for consumer notebooks with a new line of ThinkPads starting at $1,500. Big Blue has introduced the I series machines, designed specifically for the consumer market, which all offer active matrix TFT displays up to 13.3-inches, Pentium II 266Mhz or Pentium 266Mhz with MMX processors, NeoMagic graphics chips offering 128-bit accelerated 3D Graphics, up to 2.5 MB video DRAM and integrated 56K modems. The market for notebooks as primary- use computers is growing steadily and hopes are high that attaching the respected Think Pad name and look – a force in the market for high-end machines – to machines aimed at consumers, will attract enough interest to move IBM up in the ranks of total notebook sales. It trails other vendors in the overall notebook space, most notably Compaq Computer Corp and Toshiba Corp. $1,500 will get you an IBM 1410 with a 12.1-inch active matrix display, a 266-MHz MMX chip and 32MB of memory. The top of the line 1450 comes with a 13.3-inch display a 266-MHz Pentium II and 64MB of memory for $2,500. The new machines will be available in November at retail outlets and on the web, and some in the industry say that IBM’s main problem may be coming up with enough of the new models to satisfy demand.
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