Gateway expands netbook line 20 July, 2009 By Liam Lahey

PromoPipeline Exclusive Channel Promotions Find Out How You Can Make Money Today! ENROLL FREE! >> Factory Direct Should Not be Cheaper William Vanderbilt - Innovative Learning Channels Cloud Ecosystem II: A Candid Conversation with Oracle Beth Vanni - Amazon Consulting Cloud Ecosystem: A Candid Conversation with Rackspace Hosting Beth Vanni - Amazon Consulting Channel Manager Compensation William Vanderbilt - Innovative Learning Channels Financial Expertise William Vanderbilt - Innovative Learning Channels

The Gateway LT2000 netbook line measures about an inch thin and weighs 2.62 pounds, officials said. Boasting the same design seen in the Gateway LT3100 netbooks launched last month, the new Gateway LT2000 netbooks come in NightSky Black and Cherry Red with an engraved Gateway logo and modern silver trim accents.

"The new sleek Gateway LT2000 netbooks let customers do more with their time on the go -- from enjoying the Internet to video chatting and staying in touch via email and social networks," said Ray Sawall, senior product marketing manager for Gateway, in a statement. "The expressive design is modern and stylish, looking perfect whether it's used for work or play."

Its 10.1-inch TFT LED-backlit LCD display and petite form factor features all the ports for connecting to the latest peripherals; it has three USB 2.0, Ethernet and VGA as well as a multi-in-one digital card reader. The Gateway LT2000 netbooks are equipped with 1GB of memory and 160GB of hard drive space, an integrated webcam, and it features a Multi-Gesture Touchpad that lets users move around websites, documents and digital media in an intuitive way, the vendor said. The Gateway LT2000 netbooks use the latest Intel Atom processors, provide up to three hours of battery life, and feature built-in WiFi 802.11b/g.

Michelle Warren, principal analyst, MW Research & Consulting, said Gateway has really only focused on the consumer/small business markets and it has ramped up its presence in the U.S. retail channel as a result.

However in both markets (more so in Canada), Gateway has piggybacked on the Acer brand and on Acer relationships (channel).

"Acer has emerged (along with ASUS) as being the de-facto market leaders in the netbook space. Logically, it follows that Gateway would enter that market," she said. "The screen size of this product -- 10.1-inch -- and the hardware specs match with the industry standard. However, it is not an industry changing product. It won't cause a market disruption. It was released to compete with the industry, not change it."

Rob Enderle, principal analyst, The Enderle Group, said it is sad to see Gateway -- once a very proud brand -- wasting away this way due to lack of support. Acer didn't want Gateway but it did want to keep Packard Bell from Lenovo and acquiring Gateway was the only way Acer could do that.

"They sold off Gateway's business lines and it became a largely redundant brand to Acer's own and has been struggling to find an identity ever since," he said. "Stripped to the bone it is trying to be an Apple like premium brand but has neither the resources nor the reputation to fulfill that promise and it has been positioned by its unwilling parent to fail in what otherwise might actually be a successful strategy."

Warren said while Acer gained some market share since the acquisition, struggles with cost and profits in a highly competitive market space. "The Gateway business (and brand) struggles as a result," she said. "The strategy of competing for the sake of competing (by releasing comparable products) is a good first step, however, it needs more meat. Products that would shake up the industry would be a good next step."

The Gateway LT2000 is available in several configurations at a starting manufacturer's suggested retail price of $299.99 (US).