It is increasingly difficult for PC vendors to make boxes that distinguish themselves from the rest.
Most computers today that are based on Intel's central processing unit (CPU) and Microsoft's Windows 95 are almost the same.
There certainly are differences in configuration. You can have a lot of RAM or a little; a huge hard disk or one even bigger; a fast CD-Rom drive or a faster one; a modem that screams or one that merely shouts rather loudly. About the only thing that has variety is the bundled software.
There have been attempts to create boxes that distinguish themselves from the crowd. Acer designed a quite futuristic box and gave it an extraordinary green colour, the Aspire. Compaq put a scanner into the keyboard.
Now comes what some may think is the ultimate home computer: the Hewlett-Packard Pavilion, equipped with Intel's Pentium with MMX (multimedia extension) technology comes with a colour photo scanner built right into the box.
It is the first Pavilion model to be launched in Hong Kong, and HP chose the launch of the MMX-enabled Pentium from Intel to debut the home computer series. The imaging software bundled on the Pavilion is one of less than a dozen applications written to take advantage of MMX.