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While Dell Computer and Acer project a promising future for low-priced Centrino notebooks, Toshiba, Asustek Computer and BenQ said they believe the notebooks, limited by entry-level specifications, would not only fail to attract consumers but also hurt their brand image.

A major driver for low-priced Centrino notebooks, Dell is offering its Centrino-based Latitude D500 and Inspiron 500m notebooks with starting prices of $999 andS$1,049, respectively.

Acer plans to launch its Centrino-based TravelMate290 notebook at starting price of $1,000 in July or August, according to the company. As low-priced notebooks in general have enjoyed strong sales, low-priced Centrino notebooks, with their strong performance, should be very popular, Acer said.

Companies like Toshiba, Asustek and BenQ, however, said low prices and the Centrino logo are not enough to attract consumers nowadays. When buying a new notebook, most consumers want to have relatively high-performance devices - combo or DVD-ROM drives, hard drives with capacities of 40GB or above, and minimum memory capacity of 512MB - that in general are unavailable in Centrino notebooks priced below $1,200, according to the companies.

Centrino notebooks with entry-level specifications may satisfy the requirements of large-scale government and education bids, but consumers will not find them attractive, BenQ said.