Compaq’s Common Body Strategy

Many of you may have noticed that several of Compaq’s Presario notebooks make use of the same body these days. For example, the V2000, V2300 and some V2400 laptops make use of exactly the same body. The advantage is obvious - like a platform car concept, a lot of money is saved from production costs, and this helps Compaq bring out laptops that are excellent value for money.

What frustrates me is that having bought a V2148AP just a few months back for Rs. 69000, the V2000 series consisted of high end laptops back then. Now, more than 10 models from Compaq use the same body, with their prices ranging from Rs. 30000 all the way up to Rs. 70000 ! This obviously means that the flaunt value associated with a rather expensive machine is the same as one that costs less than half the money. Being a feature-centric user, I don’t mind that at all, but unfortunately, it isn’t my own laptop I’m talking about, but one I recomended to somebody else.

While shopping for a high end laptop recently (high flaunt value required), I avoided Compaq altogether not because of inferior features, but because I feared that the laptop would have no flaunt value, and I opted for an Acer Ferrari 4000, the final battle being between a VAIO B-Series and the Acer Ferrari. The 64 bit processor and 128 MB Graphics RAM on the Ferrari won me over, and I still don’t have time o write more about the Ferrari ! Compaq’s strategy may be losing premium buyers, but do they care ? I think not, for their primary market is the mid segment and to some extent the entry level market, and Compaq’s are selling like hot cakes from what I’ve seen. I was at Laptops Place in Chennai for 3 hours when buying the Acer Ferrari, and during that time, 3 Compaq’s we’re the only computers bought !! It Works, don’t fix what isn’t broken !