PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
LG is set to cause uproar in the PC sector by withholding its upcoming netbook, the X110, from traditional computer retailers until 2009, instead launching the device through mobile retailers.
The device, which comes in two models – one with a 1GB SSD and another with an 80GB hard drive, will be made available through Phones4U until the end of the year.
"Laptops are going to be big this Christmas," LG Mobile’s UK sales and marketing director John Barton told Mobile News. "Hopefully this will be the first of many for us, but we wanted to walk before we even trotted.
"We know people want to be able to access the internet in its entirety, wherever they are. Now we’re allowing them to do just that from a feature-rich device with all the styling people have come to expect from LG."
The head of HP’s telecoms channel Graeme Badenoch highlighted how crucial the market has become for the IT sector: "It’s a very important part of the market for us.
"The bundling of PCs with broadband is definitely here to stay and embedded SIM cards are going to significantly increase from now," he added.
It comes one day after distributor Micro-P announced that it had signed a deal with MSI to carry its netbook range in order to avoid being left behind in the new market.
