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Panasonic aims at notebook niche

Panasonic will aim to make a splash in the U.S. notebook market with two undersized models that could arrive between February and April.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
LAS VEGAS--Panasonic will aim to make a splash in the U.S. notebook market with two undersized models that could arrive between February and April.

The Japanese electronics company, which does not have a significant presence in the U.S. market, will sell one mini-notebook and one sub-notebook in an attempt to use these small form factors to capture consumer imagination. Panasonic's AL-N4 will compete in the mini-notebook market, while the AL-N2 will be part of the slightly larger sub-notebook segment.

The AL-N4 will feature a 120-MHz Pentium MMX processor, a chip Intel released in October that's specially designed for the proliferating mini-notebook market. It uses less power and generates less heat than the mobile Pentium commonly found in notebook PCs.

The AL-N4 will also come with a 1.6GB hard disk, 16MB of memory, and an 8.4-inch active-matrix screen. The unit will weigh 2.2 pounds and cost about $2,500.

The AL-N2 will feature a 166-MHz Pentium MMX chip, a 2.1GB hard drive, 32MB of memory, and a 10.4-inch active-matrix screen. Weighing 3 pounds, the Al-N2 will cost about $3,000.

In August, Panasonic debuted the first notebook PC to pack a DVD-ROM drive in an attempt to tap a multimedia niche, but other manufacturers quickly matched that introduction. Meanwhile, the CF-63's retail price of nearly $6,000 makes it unlikely to be a big seller. Panasonic also sells specially reinforced "ruggedized" notebooks into the industrial-use market, a comparatively small segment.