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ACi unveils lightweight, affordable laptop

BANGALORE: The ‘lakshman rekha’ of Rs. 15,000 for a laptop PC was breached on Tuesday. Mumbai-based Allied Computer International-Asia ( ACi), an enterprise first launched in the United Kingdom 15 years ago by non resident scientist- entrepreneur Hirji Kantibhai Patel, unveiled a model for the Indian market that was lightweight (less than one kg) as well as light on the purse — Rs. 14,999. Shunning better known ( and pricier) processors, ACi engineers have opted for a power-efficient chip from Via — and shrunk the screen size to a seven-inch diagonal liquid crystal display.

The specifications would be adequate for 80 per cent of the potential users who wanted a lightweight but full featured portable PC that could be fuelled with either Windows XP or a Linux flavour, said Mr. Patel.

ACi came to India in 2002 and was recently listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, also announced the launch by month end of a higher-end model with the same size and feel — but fuelled by more memory and storage, an Intel chip and the Windows Vista operating System — for around Rs. 22,000.

Meanwhile, the company has made an aggressive entry into the LCD TV market with a range of TV monitors that also double as PC monitors in the 27 inch to 50 inch range — all priced below current offerings in India.

ACi engineers in India were also working on an unusual application where the seven-inch laptop could be ‘docked’ with the LCD monitor to convert it into a PC, Mr. Patel said.

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