HP has finally come out with a new, inventive line of computers including Ultrabooks and Sleekbooks, as well as a new set of printers designed with the office environment in mind. The computers are divided into two categories: enterprise and consumer, and while the consumer versions haven’t generated much action thus far, the enterprise versions are creating quite the stir. The new designs are sleek and stylish, but will they be good enough to inspire companies to upgrade their employee’s laptops?
HP has expanded their line of Ultrabooks from two to five. An Ultrabook is basically a thin, light laptop with an incredible hard drive, RAM speed, and features that are specifically designed to help employees be more productive. The new computers released last week are the Envy Spectre XT, the Envy Sleekbook, and the Envy Ultrabook. All three notebooks come fully loaded with Windows 7 premium, 4 GB of memory, and an eight hour battery life, and come in a 14-inch model and a 15.6-inch model. Prices range from around $700 all the way to $1000 for the top-of-the-line Spectre with an HP TrueVision HD webcam and a full version of the new Adobe Photoshop included.
However, there is some question whether even these exemplary machines will get the attention they deserve from companies. Most of the time, companies won’t upgrade a computer until it’s at least ten or fifteen years old, and if an employee isn’t happy with that, they can buy their own computer and bring it to work instead. School districts, which used to be one of the largest buyers of computers, are also sticking to their guns when it comes to upgrading; the average age of a computer in a California school district is nearly nine years old.
The reasonable price point of the new HP laptops makes them stiff competition for MacBook Air computers. HP also offers corporate discounts for those companies who do choose to upgrade to the enterprise line of their new computers, so companies have plenty of incentive to recycle the old and come in with the new.
Many companies do seem to be thinking about upgrading their corporate laptops, but not in a way that would benefit HP’s laptop efforts. New data seems to indicate that tablets are the wave of the future business world, especially as technology for such tablets continues to strive forward.