PCs for easy Net access

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has launched four new models of its Pavilion home PC line, designed with easy Internet access in mind.

Asia-Pacific operations manager for HP's home products division, John Romano, said the company was expecting home use of PCs to increase steadily.

Already, almost 25 per cent of households in Hong Kong had one.

HP's new products include the Pavilion 4407H, part of its 4,000 series, which market development manager Becky Shiu described as entry-level products.

The 4407H has a 366 MHz Intel Celeron processor, 48 MB of SDRam, a 4.3gb hard drive and a 32-speed CD-Rom drive.

It is being bundled with a DeskJet 420C printer, at a street price of about $9,288.

The other three new models are in HP's 6,000 series, aimed at more experienced users.

They are the 6404H (with a 350 MHz Pentium II processor), 6408H (400 MHz Celeron) and the 6409H (400 MHz Pentium II), which all have 64 MB of SDRam, 6.4gb hard drives and 32-speed CD-Rom drives.

All include a button on the multimedia keyboard that connects to the Yahoo! search engine, and some with a two-month subscription to Hong Kong SuperNet.