Next month Acer will release its new Aspire 8920 and 6920 series of Gemstone blue notebooks targeting multimedia enthusiasts to help the company expand its overall market reach.
Kristin Markworth, senior product marketing manager at Acer America, said the concept behind the new notebooks is to create an enhanced cinematic experience for its users. The notebooks will be made available in May through the retail channel, at Staples and Costco, in combination with Acer’s distribution and reseller channels. Markworth said the Aspire 8920 series include an 18.4-inch HD LCD display and will be offered in two different models. Similarly, the Aspire 6920 notebooks feature a 16-inch screen size and will also come in two different versions, with an additional version available only at Costco.
“We’re targeting these notebooks at users who are concerned with multimedia experiences,” Markworth said. “With the 18.4-inch notebook, we’re targeting users from more of a desktop replacement angle, whereas the 16-inch notebook has more of an appeal for users who are mobile.”
She said Acer expects the notebooks to attract new customers in the multimedia enthusiast market space.
Both notebook series run on the Intel Core 2 Duo processor and feature Blu-Ray capabilities, native 16:9 resolution and 1920×1080 pixel resolution. The Aspire 8920 and 6920 series also come with up to 320GB of hard disk drive space and range between 7.72 to 9.04 pounds. The Aspire notebook families, Markworth said, are also great for watching movies and listening to music since the notebooks come with built-in Dolby Home Theatre technology as well.
Acer’s CineDash, a new built-in touch-sensitive remote control feature, located beside the keyboard can stop, rewind, play and pause multimedia.
Terry Tomecek, general manager of Acer Canada, said the company takes pride in its channel strategy.
“We try and give all channels equal opportunities,” Tomecek said. “Based on their estimated street price starting at sub $900 and up, notebook margins are typically in the low double-digit or high single-digit ranges for partners.”