Fire Up The Kneetop

By Daniel Eisenberg

It was a humbling experience for one of the most admired brands in America. When Sony rolled out its pricey home PCs in 1996, the company was supposed to lure millions of couch potatoes into the digital age. Instead the $51 billion-a-year Japanese electronics giant barely made a ripple in the market.

This time it may really have something to brag about. Sony's new VAIO 505 SuperSlim Notebook, which hit U.S. stores last week, is a marvel of miniaturization that has won rave reviews from no less discerning critics than Bill Gates and Andy Grove. Weighing just 3 lbs. and measuring only 5/8 in. thick, the $2,000 road warrior's dream machine is more a kneetop than a laptop. It combines a Pentium processor, a 2.1 GB hard drive and a 10.4-in. screen in a stunning, sleek package. (A separate, removable floppy or CD drive is required.) "Most people are satisfied with PC performance," says Dr. Teri Aoki, president of Sony Electronics. "Now the competition is over ease of use and design."

Sony plans to win that battle. Although it accounts for only 2% of the PCs sold in the U.S., Sony aims to establish its consumer-friendly machines as the anchors of digital entertainment systems, which would promote its films, music and video games, and such gadgets as digital cameras and camcorders, as the real moneymakers.

Meanwhile, though kneetop PCs represent only a fraction of the $22 billion U.S. laptop market, industry leaders like Toshiba, Compaq and NEC are readying subcompacts. Asks Dataquest analyst Mike McGuire, "When has the best technology won anything?" Sony knows the answer (remember Betamax?), but it thinks the best looking just might have a shot.

--By Daniel Eisenberg