Digital cuts notebook prices

Digital Equipment cut prices up to 19 percent on its HiNote Ultra 2000 and HiNote VP lines of notebook computers, amid industry consensus that Digital will drop its notebook and desktop lines in the relatively near future as a result of its pending merger with Compaq.

Digital, which only recently re-branded its PC lines, holds a relatively small market share in notebooks and desktops. Compaq, meanwhile, is the market leader and growing.

The Ultra 2000 with a 166-MHz Pentium MMX is being reduced from $4,039 to $3,249, a 19 percent discount. Meanwhile, the Ultra 2000 with a 233-MHz Pentium MMX was cut 13.5 percent, from $5,479 to $4,793; and the 266-MHz Pentium MMX version of the laptop was dropped from $5,999 to $5,589, a 6.8 percent discount.

The Ultra 2000, launched last August, was the first laptop from a major vendor to come with a 14.1-inch LCD display.

The other line being discounted, the HiNote VP, is Digital's lower-end notebook. The HiNote VP 745 comes with a 266-MHz Pentium MMX, a 13.3-inch active-matrix screen, 32MB of memory, and a 4GB hard disk drive. It is being cut 13 percent, from $4,849 to $4,219.

The HiNote VP 735, featuring a 233-MHz Pentium MMX, a 13.3-inch active-matrix screen, 32MB of memory, and a 4GB hard disk drive, will be cut from $4,219 to $3,899, a 7.5 percent discount.