Acer slices notebook prices

Acer America said today it is cutting prices from 15 percent to 31 percent on all models in its Texas Instruments Extensa line of notebooks, including recently announced models.

Extensa price cuts
Model	Processor	Old price	New price
660CD	166-MHz Pentium MMX	$3,299	$2,799
660CDT	166-MHz Pentium MMX	$3,999	$3,299
900	133-MHz Pentium	$2,799	$2,299
900T	133-MHz Pentium	$3,799	$2,599
900CDT	133-MHz Pentium	$4,299	$3,099

Acer, which acquired Texas Instrument's (TXN) notebook operations in January, says the price cuts are the result of efficiencies gained by merging the TI and Acer product lines. The new prices are part of an effort to focus on small and mid-sized businesses, as well as large corporate accounts, Acer said.

Prior to its purchase of TI's notebook assets, Acer manufactured the Extensa and TravelMate line of notebooks for Texas Instruments.

Both models in the Extensa 660 series, just introduced in February, will have prices reduced. The 660CDT, for example, has had its price reduced from $3,999 to $3,299, a reduction of 17.5 percent. The 660CDT comes with 166-MHz MMX-enabled Pentium, 11.3-inch active matrix display, 128-bit graphics controller, and 2.1GB removable hard drive.

The former top-line Extensa 900CDT with 133-MHz Pentium and 11.3-inch active matrix display was priced at $4,299 and is now $3,099, a reduction of 28 percent. The 900T was priced at $3,799 and now costs $2,599, a reduction of 31 percent. Other models in the 660 and 900 series received similar cuts.

Acer says that they reduced the price of the Mobile Productivity Base for the Extensa 900 series by $100 to $499. The base attaches to the notebook and provides an 8X CD-ROM drive, second battery, and 32-bit PCI Card slot.

The price cuts are effective immediately, Acer said.