HP to offer small PC for schools

Hewlett-Packard Co. plans to enter the growing market for pint-size computers targeted mainly to pint-size customers, introducing an ultra-portable PC it says is smaller than some textbooks and priced to appeal to schools.

The Mini-Note weighs 2.63 pounds and has an 8.9-inch screen and an almost full-size keyboard, Hewlett-Packard said. Prices start at $499 for a model with Linux operating system software and $599 with Microsoft Corp.’s Windows.

Hewlett-Packard gets more than half its PC revenue from notebook machines. Sales to educational buyers totaled 17 million PCs last year, accounting for about 6% of all machines shipped, researcher IDC said.

Hewlett-Packard spent a year designing the Mini and tapped a council of educators for ideas on winning them over, said Dan Forlenza, head of the business notebook group. The inch-thick Mini has a scratch-resistant display, a keyboard that is about 92% of full size, a built-in hard drive, an optional camera and a standard battery that lasts about 2 hours.