BenQ enters Indian notebook market

By siliconindia staff writer   |   Thursday, 24 June 2004, 19:30 IST
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MUMBAI: BenQ, an industry leader in networked digital lifestyle devices, has announced its entry into the Indian notebook market with the launch of two Centrino based Joybooks models 5000 and 6000. The Joybooks ranging between 80,000 - 1,60,000 would be distributed and serviced nationwide by Redington. To support the launch of Joybook, BenQ the official IT sponsor of Euro 2004, will premiere its TVC around the quarter finals. Having started out as a computer peripherals maker, BenQ fully appreciates the difficulty of integrating peripherals with PCs. The issue is not limited to the compatibility of different hardware specifications, but also the integration of software and drivers. The Digital Hub is BenQ's solution. The Digital Hub offers a convenient way to integrate and transform digital data - such as sound, graphics, or video - to the PC where the user can easily manipulate, save, or share it. The Joybook - is BenQ's first and core Digital Hub product - through BenQ's Media Gateway products, it can link display devices, mobile phones, PCs, digital cameras, recordable CD disk drives, and MP3 players to edit, store, transfer and share data in both wired and wireless environments. Says Ashish Bakshi, Country Head - India Operations, BenQ, "We are the first notebook player to introduce the concept of Digital Hub wherein we promote integration of all digital devices into one complete personal infotainment workstation. Targeting today's tech savvy professionals who are no longer limited by the boundaries of office and home, BenQ aims to offer wireless capabilities at price points that bring value and enjoyment to peoples' lives. Our focus will be on the corporate customer who accounts for almost 50-60 percent of the total notebook business." On their tie-up for distribution with BenQ, Aniruddha Joshi, Vice President, Redington said, "BenQ is a world leader in digital lifestyle products and we are proud of our association with them. We will leverage our extensive distribution network of over 6700 dealers to drive Joybook sales especially with the SMB and corporate segments." Joybook is the flagship product of BenQ's Digital Media division. Built keeping the style-savvy customer in mind the Joybook boasts of a superior industrial design and a contoured organic shape. The Digital Media division encompasses Joybooks, LCD monitors, LCD TVs, plasma displays and projectors. On the anvil are launches of many world class digital products such as India's first 46" plasma display and India's first 12 millisecond LCD monitor. Besides having the latest Intel(r) Centrino(tm) processor at its core, the Joybook 5000 is equipped with the brightest LCD screen at 200-nit, a 6-hour battery life, an easy-to-use 24x-speed DVD/CD-RW combo drive and a high performance ATI(r) MOBILITY RADEON(tm) 9000 graphics chip, that supports 32MB of video RAM. Made especially for ultra-mobile users, the BenQ Joybook 6000 weighs in at a mere 1.6 kilograms and measures just 2.3 cm in thickness. It's Intel(r) Centrino(tm) mobile technology lets the user connect online wirelessly while conserving battery power. The BenQ Joybook 6000 provides a FireWire (IEEE 1394) port, two USB 2.0 ports, a PCMCIA slot, and a 3-in-1 card reader, giving the user access to virtually every type of digital peripheral, including consumer electronics devices such as digital camcorders. Both the Joybooks are available in variants with Combo drive/ DVD drive and Windows XP Home/ Windows XP Pro operating system.