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Sinomanic's Low-cost PC Sales Target Questioned(China IT Watch Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) BEIJING, Feb 08, 2007 (SinoCast China IT Watch via COMTEX) --Sichuan Sinomanic Co., Ltd. recently launched four models of low-cost personal computers, and targets sales of 500,000 to 1 million units for one of the models for student users, but its commercial prospect was questioned by industry observers. Based in southwestern China's Sichuan Province, Sinomanic is the second manufacturer of PCs made with China's homegrown CPU Longxin in the country, following Jiangsu Lemote Technology Co., Ltd. from East China. Sinomanic Tianhua, a laptop for students, will be equipped with Longxin-I chip and the optimized Linux operating system. The product is expected to hit the market soon at price of CNY 1,998, and now, it is available for pre-ordering. Sinomanic aims to sell 500,000 to 1 million units of this model, via traditional sales channels like electronics stores, according to a director with the PC maker. The other three models are respectively for rural market, business and home users. Sinomanic Long'en, the one for farmer users, is marked only CNY 988 at the pre-ordering period, and that is the lowest price among the four models. Sinomanic Tianlong, designed with Longxin-II CPU and preinstalled with Linux OS and office software, is marked at CNY 2,998 for business users, the highest price among the four models. And the other one, Sinomanic Tiansheng, is designed as a model advantaged in multi-media functions, with a medium price of CNY 1,398 among the four. Meanwhile, Sinomanic also presented an operating system named Future Alpha, for 64 bits Longxin microprocessor Longxin- II. Sinomanic said the system has successfully passed the testing running at Longxin-II chip on January 19. Although Sinomanic has expressed that it has already owned the capacity of mass production of the four models, and could accept customers' volume orders, only two models displayed at its recent products presentation held in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, used living machines, while the other two were just prototypes. For this point, a director of Sinomanic said that the living machines of the other two models were in debugging now, estimated requiring a longer period, but the company can ensure shipment by March, subject to the present pre-ordering. The director added that Sinomanic has no problem with capital chain and shipment support of these models. Sources said the company will commission the manufacture of the products for students and rural market to small and medium contract makers in Taiwan. However, industry observers expressed doubts about the company's one million sales target for this year. Some said that the prices of its desktop models did not include the display, so the prices were in fact not so competitive than some low-end-configuration products of some big names. And for the hot-focused CNY 988 Sinomanic computer for rural market, some people said that the product merely has practical value. About the disputed issue, Jiangsu Lemote Technology, one of the major companies engaged in China's Longxin CPU industrialization undertaking, also Sinomanic's bigger domestic competitor, declined to make comments on, adding its PC shipment for this year will be over ten hundreds units. From dycj.ynet.com, Page 1, Wednesday, February 07, 2007 [email protected] Copyright (C) 2007 SinoCast LLC. All rights reserved |