Gateway revamps retail notebook lineup

Ever since Dell has been kicking butt in the retail end of the consumer PC industry, Gateway has been sort of left out in the cold. Their marketing appeared less and less; it seemed like they were not long for this world. In an effort to curb this belief, they released 5 new notebook computers that they believe will be just the ticket for the consumer market out there.

Gateway unveiled five new notebooks Monday that update the original lineup of notebooks it sells through retail partners, the company said in a release.

The new notebooks span several different categories of mobile computing, from full-featured desktop-replacement models to lighter units designed for portability. One of the models features Advanced Micro Devices’s Athlon 64 Mobile processor, while the others stick with Intel’s (Profile, Products, Articles) Celeron M, Pentium M and Pentium 4 processors.

After closing its chain of retail stores, Gateway has used the retail contacts of its eMachines division to obtain shelf space for its PCs in prominent U.S. retail stores such as Best Buy, CompUSA and Circuit City. Gateway closed its retail stores when it pulled back from the consumer electronics market after it acquired eMachines.

Sharp increases in retail sales have brought Gateway to the brink of profitability. The Irvine, California, company recorded a net profit for the first time in several quarters in the fourth quarter of 2004, but those results included a $100 million one-time gain. The company still lost money on an operating basis, but thinks it can be profitable in 2005 with the bulk of its restructuring work completed.

The new notebooks will help Gateway reach several different types of customers, a Gateway spokeswoman said. The 3018GZ notebook carries a suggested retail price of just under $1,000 with Intel’s Celeron M 350 processor, 512M bytes of memory, a 60G-byte hard drive and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW (CD-rewritable) optical drive. At 5.25 pounds (2.36 kilograms), this system is aimed at users who need a portable PC and who only require basic computing power.