Mac lovers, however, may have to wait until January to see a plentiful supply. Canon USA, barely present in laptops a year ago, is taking an aggressive tack on price with its InnovaBook line. Large corporations, until now the biggest market for laptops, are in the process of upgrading their mobile-computer fleets from machines based on Intel's 486 chips to Pentium models. And it has created a yawning opening that companies such as Canon, Sharp, and Hewlett-Packard are aiming to fill. The single biggest consideration remains the display.
Choices center on size and technology.
Last year, the most common displays were 10 inches. But these are rapidly giving way to 11-in. One advantage of choosing a larger display is that these portables can double as office machines without the need for an external monitor. Active-matrix screens are more easily viewed in strong light and work well for customer presentations. While TFTs are still more costly than DSTNs, the premium for TFT is narrowing.