Acer notebooks slashed again

For the second time in a month, Acer America has cut notebook prices, this time from 6 to 16 percent.

The cuts are part of a general downward trend in computer prices.

"There's been a little bit of a surplus of PCs in the channel recently," said Computer Intelligence analyst Matt Sargent. "There's some excess inventory, but prices have been coming down every month. This is business as usual."

Acer cut the prices of its Extensa 670 and 390 models. The 671CDT, which features a 166-MHz Pentium processor, 32MB of memory, a 2.1GB hard drive, and an integrated 10/100 Ethernet connection, will drop to $2,699 from $2,999, a 10 percent reduction.

The 391C notebook, which comes with a 133-MHz Pentium processor, 32MB of memory, and a 2.1GB hard drive, will drop to $1,499 from $1,799, a cut of 16 percent.

Acer America last month cut prices by as much as 23 percent on its business notebooks and desktops, offering notebooks for as low as $1,599 and a business PC for less than $800.

The company has said that price cuts have caused sales of its retail systems to nearly double in the second half of 1997.