Hitachi notebooks aim for business
Hitachi begins shipping three upgraded models of its VisionBook Pro laptop, the start of a push for an increased presence in the corporate market.
Featuring one model with a 266-MHz Pentium MMX processor, Intel's top-of-the-line mobile chip, the VisionBook Pro notebooks are designed for a corporate, networked environment. Hitachi's newest portables come equipped with a US Robotics 56-kbps cellular-ready modem and 10/100 BaseT LAN support.
Hitachi currently claims about 2.7 percent of the notebook market, with most of its customers coming from the retail sector, according to Mike McGuire, notebook analyst for Dataquest. Shipping products like the VisionBook Pro that are aimed at the corporate market is necessary if Hitachi wants to break into the upper echelon of notebook manufacturers, McGuire thinks.