Hewlett-Packard Cuts Prices on Pentium II-Based Workstations

Strategic Insights -

Hewlett-Packard has made significant price cuts on its Pentium II processor-based HP Kayak family, aiming to provide customers with the most advanced PC workstation solutions at aggressive prices. The move has put HP at the forefront of price leadership, coupled with its market leadership in graphics, performance, and overall market presence. According to Boris Elisman, marketing manager for HP's Performance Desktop Computing Operation, "Today, HP has reclaimed price leadership and added it to the HP Kayak PC Workstation's graphics, performance, and market leadership."

Key Takeaways:

  • HP has cut prices on its Pentium II processor-based HP Kayak family by up to 17 percent.
  • The price cuts are effective immediately.
  • The HP Kayak XA PC Workstation, designed for business and technical users, has seen an 11 percent price reduction.
  • The HP Kayak XU PC Workstation, optimized for performance, has a 7 percent price cut.
  • The HP Kayak XW PC Workstation, offering advanced graphics and performance, has a 17 percent price reduction.
  • All HP Kayak PC Workstations come preloaded with HP TopTools, a standards-based software solution for management, security, and configuration.
  • HP Kayak XU and XW PC Workstations offer performance improvements through HP FastRAID disk caching and hardware striping.
  • The HP Kayak XW PC Workstation features HP VISUALIZE fx4 graphics or AccelECLIPSE OpenGL graphics accelerators.
  • HP Kayak XW workstations with dual Pentium II 300MHz processors and AccelECLIPSE graphics have a price reduction of 17 percent.

Statistics:

  • Estimated street price of an HP Kayak XA PC Workstation with a Pentium II 233MHz processor, 32MB SDRAM, and 2.5GB hard drive: $1,920 (a reduction of 11 percent).
  • Estimated street price of an HP Kayak XU PC Workstation with a Pentium II 266MHz processor, Matrox Millennium II AGP graphics, 4.5GB Ultra SCSI hard drive, and 64MB SDRAM: $3,700 (a reduction of 7 percent).
  • Estimated street price of a fully featured HP Kayak XW PC Workstation with dual Pentium II 300MHz processors, AccelECLIPSE graphics card, dual 4.5GB FastRAID disk-drive solution, and 128MB SDRAM: $8,600 (a reduction of 17 percent).
  • HP FastRAID disk caching and hardware striping improve hard-disk I/O performance by up to 80 percent.

Sources:

  • "Hewlett-Packard Company Thursday cut prices by up to 17 percent on its Pentium II processor-based HP Kayak family..."

(Hewlett-Packard Company press release, no date specified)

  • "Today, HP has reclaimed price leadership and added it to the HP Kayak PC Workstation's graphics, performance and market leadership," said Boris Elisman, marketing manager for HP's Performance Desktop Computing Operation.

(Hewlett-Packard Company press release, no date specified)

  • Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.
  • Information about HP Kayak PC Workstations can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com/go/kayak.