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The S6 is described as the world's first leather notebook and is designed as an object more suitable for home environments, according to Markus Wierzoch, design manager within the Asus 'ID Team'. People associate leather with personal data stores such as diaries, Filofaxes, briefcases and the like, he said, so why should laptops be different?

Although full details of its spec have not yet been confirmed, the Asus S6 (pictured) will run on a Core Duo chip, Intel's new dual-core processor. The product will go on sale in mid-April, with an RRP of between £1400-£1700.

Asus has also launched its flagship notebook, the multimedia W2Jc, which is based on Intel's Centrino Duo platform. Housed in an aluminium chassis with a 17in widescreen, it features a 120GB HDD, ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics, and built-in DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial) for wireless digital TV reception (where the service is available). Available in the channel from early March, the W2Jc will be priced at £1,999 inc. VAT

Returning to the S6, in order

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to develop the cowhide covering Asus has filed 25 patents for the use of leather in such a context, explained Wierzoch, including the necessary properties of the glue.

The designer was in London to brief journalists on Asus's design-lead push into the notebook market. Already number seven in terms of global shipments - according to the IDC - the company wants to push further up among the big boys, and shed its image as just a motherboard maker. And it sees strength of brand, derived from good design, as being the means to so.

While the Lamborghini laptop has gained a lot of attention, this can be seen as a novelty concept notebook, closely echoing Acer's Ferrari offering. Asus is keen to emphasise, however, that good design should be central to all their products. This could be where the two Taiwanese rivals diverge on tactics for future market growth. While Acer has successfully captured market share via aggressive pricing, Asus are obviously hoping to leverage perceived brand quality to increase revenue from premium pricing.

Wierzoch claimed that Asus was in a unique position among the major vendors in actually manufacturing their own notebooks - as opposed to outsourcing and sub-contracting third parties, which puts them in a stronger position to control design issues at all stages.

As part of his talk about brand perception Wierzoch covered Asus's green credentials. As well as research into the materials used, he also looked into the future offered the prospect of component re-use within computers - the idea of swapping hard drives or even screen, perhaps even on a rental basis.