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Electronics manufacturers are scraping the barrel in attempts to make their virtually indistinguishable products stand out, with even the notebook PC industry now competing in one of the least relevant categories - color. Taiwan's Acer Inc, a powerhouse in the world PC market, on Monday announced the latest product in its ¡°Ferrari¡± series, the Acer Ferrari 4000.
The firm has been marketing the line since 2003 under a contract with the Formula 1 carmaker ScuderiaFerrari Marlboro, the primary color of the laptops being - well, you guessed. The aim appears to be to exploit the reputation of the quintessential Italian sports car that gave the particular shade its name.
Samsung Electronics in mid-May started marketing a blue notebook - the Q30-Blue2 - a follow-up to its Sense Q30 series. Samsung had a hit last year by marketing Rose Red products. This time around Samsung says it is appealing to ¡°a younger generation¡± with blue.
Lenovo Korea, the local subsidiary of China's biggest computer maker Lenovo -which recently bought the PC business of IBM - reportedly plans a ¡°substantial¡± change to the color of its black Think Pad series. The move is based on a judgment that black no longer appeals to the young.
LG Electronics, which improved the image of its notebooks through the "X note" series, plans to sell colored notebooks within the year, according to business sources.
Color has been, so to speak, on everyone¡¯s lips in an industry clearly in need of some fresh distraction, ever since Samsung Electronics made a spectacular success in the European market of its Blue-Black Phone, the SPH-V6900, after it found that the earlier blue phone lacked a certain je-ne-sais-quoi.
(Woo Byeong-hyeon, penman@chosun.com )
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