PCs get a wow factor

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on the go. It is also an important design criteria for mobile workers and people who travel for work frequently. There are also a rising number of products with integrated webcams, appealing to both consumer and commercial segments,” says Morvay.

And to appeal to the young, who inhabit the online social networks, notebooks need to acquire new dimensions. Many would be willing to shell out a machine, which can play DVDs without booting or can work even if a glass of water is poured on it. Colour, finish and texture are obviously big. Moving away from traditional materials, some companies are experimenting with leather for the external cover. And many would want changeable covers like mobile phones. Precious stones are also invading some expensive models.

Microsoft Next-Gen PC Design Competition 2007, for instance, made champs think ‘out of the box’. The winning entry looked like an Asian dining platter, with its chopstick-like input device, called as CHOPstylus that allowed for inputs on the PC’s touchscreen.

And R&D labs of these PC vendors are globally grappling to come up with innovative designs. At Lenovo, the design ideas come from five global development centres and global research centres at Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen in China, Yamato in Japan and Morrisville in USA.

“New technologies or futuristic concepts are studied in global research centres with technologies or concepts ripening in about 12 to 18 months. The global development centre makes the prototype and implements a global user research with the target end-user, and marketing to perfect our design, step-by-step with the centre. After these prototype designs pass the user research, they are integrated into a product development plan and delivered to market on time,” informs Liu Jun, senior vice-president and president, consumer business group, Lenovo. Fashion designer and former robotics student at Hampshire College, Raghavendra Rathore points out three main elements of a notebook design—a future and environment-friendly machine (made of renewable or biodegradable material), power packed and functional (with all the features a user buys a machine for) and style statement.

“A notebook must always begin with functional design, aesthetics, ergonomics and engineering design,” agrees HCL’s Paul.