Originally published August 15 2005
Now is a good time to go laptop shopping
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Now might be the best time to go laptop shopping, as prices have dipped to an all-time low.
Good prices on low-end notebooks abound this month, if you're willing to file for rebates, according to research released this week from Current Analysis.
Individual vendors previously dipped below the $500 mark with low-end notebooks this year but currently four major retailers as well as PC market leader Dell all had sub-$500 laptops displayed prominently on store shelves and in circulars over the past weekend, said Sam Bhavnani, principal analyst at Current Analysis in San Diego.
With the continuing demand for notebooks to replace aging desktops, retailers such as Best Buy and CompUSA are becoming more aggressive with notebook sales and promotion, he said.
(For buying advice, check out PC World's Laptops InfoCenter.)
Vendors are following suit as they take advantage of decreases in the prices of components such as DRAM (dynamic RAM) chips and flat-panel displays, Bhavnani said.
He predicted vendors and retailers will continue to push each other to lower prices in the second half of the year, which is usually the busiest shopping period for PCs.
For example, at Best Buy, Toshiba offered a $449 version of its Satellite A85-S1072 notebook with a 15-inch display, Intel's Celeron M 360 processor, 256 megabytes of DRAM, a 40GB hard drive, and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive.
Over at CompUSA, Acer had a $499 AS3502WLCi notebook on sale with a Celeron M 360 processor, a 15-inch widescreen display, 512MB of DRAM, a 40GB hard drive, and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive.
To get the low price on the Toshiba laptop, customers needed to complete the paperwork on a $200 manufacturer's rebate and a separate $150 mail-in rebate offered by Best Buy.
CompUSA required customers to mail in rebate forms for an additional $200 in savings on Acer's notebook, while Dell needed rebate paperwork to receive $150 in savings.
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