News Bits: Lenovo Coca-Cola Laptop, Leather MacBook Sleeves, AMD Misses Revenue Targets

Lenovo's Limited Edition F20 iCoke Notebook

Lenovo Coca-Cola notebook (view large image)

July 6<SUP>th</SUP> - Lenovo and Coca-Cola today jointly announced the availability of a possible collector's item for Chinese consumers - the F20 iCoke notebook. It is the first Lenovo co-branded notebook to feature the Lenovo Olympic composite logo.

The Lenovo F20 specifications are as follows:

• 12.1" widescreen display
• Mg-Al casing
• Dual batteries; up to 8.5 hours
• Intel Pentium M 778 CPU
• 512MB DDR2 RAM
• 80GB HDD
• Intel GMA900 graphics
• WiFi + Bluetooth
• 3 x USB 2.0, Firewire

Director of Worldwide Licensing and Retail Operations for the Coca-Cola company, Mr. Andres Kiger, stated:

"Combined with the distinct design and branding of Coca-Cola, this notebook will provide consumers with a new standard in innovative technology to complement all their contemporary lifestyle needs. The partnership is also an exciting platform that will enable us to further expand the reach of our fast growing iCoke program in China."

The joint venture is part of an overall strategy to strengthen and build on the growing partnership between both companies.

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Noreve announces three new sleeves for Apple MacBooks

(view large image)

July 6<SUP>th</SUP> - Noreve launched three new sizes of high quality leather sleeves, aimed at Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks. Sizes range from 13" - 17". Characteristics of the sleeves include:

• Made of soft pebble grain calf leather
• Compatible with Apple MacBook Pro 13"
• Slim design
• Top quality easy movement zipper
• Protects the notebook in an optimal manner
• 5 mm foam protection on either side
• Soft inside fabric lining

Four colors are available - black, camel, pink, and sandy vintage.

13.3" Sleeve Link - $76.75
15.4" Sleeve for MacBook Pro - $89.55
17" Sleeve for MacBook Pro - $102.34

Intel throws $600 million on WiMAX

July 6<SUP>th</SUP> - Intel Capital made its largest investment to date by placing $600 million in Clearwire, and signals Intel's continued interest in the WiMAX-style technology pushed by Clearwire.

Clearwire is a firm that offers wireless Internet access based on the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard. When the technology is fully up and running, it will push for full WiMAX compatibility. Clearview operates networks along the West Coast, and also in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Denmark, and Mexico. Top connections speeds are 1.5Mbps, and monthly charges range from $30 to $37.

Intel is planning to push this technology any way it can because it hopes to be a major manufacturer of WiMAX chipsets. Intel has already announced plans to integrated the technology into its Centrino notebook platform.

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AMD misses revenue targets for Q2 -- issues warning to analysts

Analysts on Wall St. were expecting AMD to hit $1.3 billion in revenue this quarter, but AMD stepped up to the podium ahead of schedule today to warn analysts that when they officially report about 2-weeks from now it will be more like $1.2 billion.

AMD said sales of entry level processors for consumer notebooks and desktops were down in the second quarter while server processor sales continued to be healthy. The second quarter is generally the slowest for chipmakers due to slackened consumer demand. AMD additionally cited price pressure from Intel as a problem for pushing down revenue.

Even with the lower than expected analyst number though, the sales are 52% greater than AMD's numbers from last year for the same period.

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[B]Tier 2 notebook manufacturers being pushed out[/B] [p]Taiwan's second-tier notebook manufactures could have a difficult time this year maintaining growth in shipments, mainly due to a greater concentration of notebook orders at the 'big four' - Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, Wistron, and Inventec. [p][I]Among Taiwan's second-tier notebook makers, only Mitac Technology (MTC) would manage to maintain steady shipment growth this year, the sources noted. MTC is expected to ship 1.8 million notebooks in 2006, up from 1.59 million units last year, the sources estimate. The company enjoyed on-year shipment growth of 13% in 2005.[/I] [p]Arima's shipments are down from 2005 by 15.8" - although it shipped 950,000 units in 2005, it is only expected to do 800,000 units this year. Uniwill is another second-tier manufacturer feeling the squeeze, and could suffer and on-year slide of 28.6% in full-year shipments. [p][URL=http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20060706A7038.html]Read More[/URL] [p] [p][B]Interesting Links[/B] [p][URL=http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3166]Early Launch of Nintendo Wii possible[/URL] [p][URL=http://xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2duo-preview.html]Intel's Core 2 architecture unleashed[/URL][/p][/p][/p][/p][/p][/p][/p][/p]

 

Who on earth in his right mind would buy a laptop with "CocaCola" of all things written all over it?? Is it a retaliation for Asus's Lambo. or Acer's Ferrari ??? Gosh... Lenovo is really loosing it.

 

Coke is a huge international brand, I don't think they'll have any issue selling their entire run of this model.

 

agreed, as fugly as that thing is, the demand will most likely outstrip supplies.

 

I have a coke logo embeded on my cellphone that was sold at joint marketing effort but I wouldn't pay more for a coke branded anything .

I like coke and pop culture but still don't get why someone will be willing to pay extra just to be a walking advertisment .

 

Exactly. I hate really big logos that get slap on everything. In a notebook, small logos are fine. I would be ashamed of owning and using that coca cola notebook because it screams "hey look, I am an ad whore!".

 

Did anyone notice that it's called iCoke? WTF??? At least make it iDrinkCoke or something

Malia

 

Just curious, when's the "iDietCoke" version to be relessed?

 

Lol. Take that Pepsi. Coke owns you. =D