NEW DELHI, INDIA: HCL today introduced its future computing strategy with two ultra-portable product laptop lines.

 

The first of the products is the MiLeap X series at Rs 13,990, a 1.4kg ultra portable with a 7" LCD, running Linux with a GUI. The X-series has 2GB flash-based storage instead of a hard drive, built-in wireless, USB and PC Card socket. It has soft faux-leather cladding to make it shock-resistant, which allows it to be carried without a laptop case.

 

The second product, the MiLeap Y series, is a sub-Rs 30, 000, fully loaded ultra portable tablet PC with Microsoft Vista. The 980 g laptop has multiple navigation (thumboard, stylus, keyboard, touch and voice), The Y series has a 1.8" 80GB hard drive, and a battery life similar to the X, of about 4 hours. It's priced at Rs 29,990.

 

The laptops have built-in Wi-Fi, and use Intel mobile processors. Intel has been a key partner, and both laptops appear to be based on an Intel reference design, with the X-series looking remarkably like the Intel Classmate PC that was designed in Bangalore. Intel has also offered special pricing to HCL for its processor and chipsets. According to HCL, the laptops are "simple, sturdy and reliable, energy efficient, safe and rounded with no sharp corners or edges, and environment friendly (RoHS compliant)".

 

Announcing the products, HCL chairman Ajai Chowdhry said that these products made portable computing accessible to a large part of the population of India. These "products have the power to change the marketplace," he said. There was a space in the market with more mobility than a laptop, and more capability than a cell phone, he added. "This has been a day I've dreamt of for a long time…the future of computing is now."

 

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