PC brands are hoping to copy their success with low-cost consumer notebooks to corporate buyers, but acceptance among that fussier segment could be harder even as the cheaper models dent the broader industry's profits.
Netbooks - stripped-down PCs customised for Internet use - took off in a big way last year after their launch in 2007, with shipments expected to double to 21 million units this year in an overall shrinking or flat PC market.
Intel's newly launched consumer ultra-low voltage (CULV) chip aims to bridge the gap between cheap netbook chips and more powerful and expensive chips used in traditional notebook PCs.
However, CULV laptops could actually hit revenue for the broader consumer PC market as some consumers abandon costlier traditional laptops and go for the cheaper new models, encouraged by a promise of relatively decent performance.
The inability of such portable, mini-laptops to run sophisticated software has kept corporate customers away, as lax security could make them easier prey for viruses.
The end game for PC brands is low-cost noteboks that would be lapped up by corporate customers, who account for about half of all PC purchases.
"If you can have thin and light, more power and a regular price, which customer won't want that?" J.T. Wang, chairman of Acer, the world's No 3 PC brand, said at last month's launch of the world's first notebook with a CULV chip. He expects CULV laptops to make up 15 percent of Acer's revenue by the end of the year.
Smaller cross-town rival and netbook PC pioneer Asustek is likely to join the bandwagon and unveil its own CULV-based notebook PC later this month. Wang and other CULV backers say their computers will fill an important niche for PC buyers who want high performance but are also more price sensitive.
Smaller price tags on netbooks and the upcoming CULV notebooks could be bad news for investors, as companies would have to sell many more of these lower-cost products to make the same amount of profit from one traditional laptop. Profits at many PC companies are already falling due to lower prices even as they ship more computers.