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The company is launching two models in the Acer Aspire range - the 2001 and 2003 - the former aimed at the high-end consumer market and the other at the professional market. The notebooks are based on Centrino technology and include the Pentium M processor with speeds of up to 1.6GHz (1.4GHz for the 2001), the 855GM chipset and built in 802.11b. Acer claims this provides the range with battery life of up to five hours before recharging.

The machines are fitted with 256MB and 512MB of RAM respectively (expandable to 2GB) and 30 and 40GB hard disk drives. Both machines are fitted with

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a 15.4in TFT display with a maximum resolution of 1,280x800 WSXGA screen, driven by an ATI Radion 9200 chipset.

Included in the machines is Aspire Arcade, which is Acer's proprietory media management system similar to Microsoft's Media Centre. Prices for the machines are expected to be £1,299 inc VAT for the 2001 and £1,499 inc VAT for the 2003.

Acer is also looking to expand its presence in the Tablet market beyond the ultraportable towards the mainstream notebook market. The Travelmate C300 series is a Tablet PC the size of a full size notebook with a 14.1in inch display. The thinking being that there is a market for business people who want a fully functional notebook with a screen big enough to be usable all day but with the ability to switch to Tablet mode for meetings and notetaking.

Weighing in at 2.85Kg, the C300 are also based around the Centrino design with 1.6GHz clock speed and a 400MHz FSB. It has 512MB of RAM expandable to 2GB. The XGA TFT display supports a maximum resolution of 1,024x768, which rotates to convert it to tablet mode. Storage is provided by a 60GB EIDE hard disk drive and a DVD dual writer. Prices start at £1,299 inc VAT.