HCL launches India's first Windows XP enabled Beanstalk Media Center PC
Partners with Microsoft to bring revolutionary new HCL Beanstalk Media Center PC in India
New Delhi, October 3, 2003 -- HCL Infosystems, India's premier information enabling
and integration company, today announced the launch of the HCL Beanstalk Media
Center PC, which makes it the first Indian brand to do so. The PC has been specially
developed by HCL, coupling with newly designed interface of Microsoft Windows
XP Media Center edition, to completely revolutionize digital entertainment in
India. This latest PC is available across the country through HCL's channel network.
The HCL Beanstalk Media Center PC is all set to move from the study to the living
room and emerge as the command centre for an exploding array of home entertainment
options. It will provide users ultimate convenience of productivity, connectivity
and digital entertainment. The advent of the Beanstalk Media Centre PC range in
the market marks a coming of age for the Indian Home PC.
The HCL Beanstalk Media Center PC, comes with a remote which can be used for viewing
TV, DVDs, listening to music, viewing photos, even checking your mail, and switching
between media at the touch of a button. Thus giving the user a fantastic, new
entertainment experience. The HCL Beanstalk Media Center PC range starts at Rs.
60,990, inclusive of one-year comprehensive on-site warranty. The HCL Beanstalk
Media Center PC offers multiple models; on the offer is a new breed of living
room PC with sleek, compact, futuristic cube design as well as stunning black
PCs with contemporary design.
Announcing the launch of the Media Center, Mr. Ajai Chowdhry, Chairman & CEO, HCL Infosystems
Ltd., said, "We have always asserted that our aim is to keep the Indian customer
in-step with the latest technological innovations worldwide. The Beanstalk Media
Center PC that we have launched will, without any exaggeration, completely transform
the digital entertainment. Today, users are demanding more from their home PCs
and entertainment is all set to become mainstream consumer activity. The Beanstalk
has, as always, risen to the occasion." The Beanstalk, India's first home
computer, was launched in 1995 with a view to addressing the fast emerging home
market, and since then it has always been the first to embrace the latest cutting
edge technology.
Commenting on the announcement, Mr. Rajiv Kaul, Managing Director, Microsoft Corporation
Pvt Ltd, "With every release of Windows, we've aimed to address immediate
and emerging customer needs, while pushing the barrier on innovation. The Windows
XP Media Center leverages cutting edge innovation to provide rich, integrated
entertainment experiences to a host of users, and we are confident of the success
of this offering in India." HCL Infosystems is the first in the country to
launch the Media Center.
The industry has made great progress toward developing interoperability guidelines
as well as innovative products and services that are helping make the digital
home a reality for consumers. The latest HCL Beanstalk Media Center PC with Intel(R)
Pentium (R) 4 Processors with hyper-threading Technology can handle the most demanding
computer user's day," said Ketan Sampat, President Intel India. "These
individuals can start their day with a multitasking work environment, move on
to encoding home movies to DVD while playing music files, and end their day with
the latest multiplayer Internet games. With high-performance PCs, consumers can
dramatically reduce the time it takes to encode digital media such as music, pictures,
and movies.
One of the biggest advantages that HCL Beanstalk enjoys over the competition is that
it comes with the world's best sound and display system. The product comes with
the Bose FreeStyle speaker system, first time ever to be integrated with a PC.
The Bose FreeStyle system delivers surround sound effect with just two speakers
and a sub woofer to provide most of the performance benefits of a 5-speaker surround
sound system. This would give the user a richer digital experience.
The HCL Beanstalk Media Center PC comes with a Dyna flat colour, high-resolution,
anti-glare monitor range, with a unique space saving design available in size
17" and above. Among the features that make it ideal for living room usage
are a wireless keyboard and mouse, built-in TV tuner, DVD and CD player/recorder,
MP3 capability, FM radio enabled; and ready for editing, storing and viewing digital
home movies and photos. The HCL Beanstalk Media Center PC is equipped with an
Intel® Pentium® IV 2.4 HT and 3 GHz processor and the Windows XP Media
Center Edition operating software, the most advanced OS for PCs in the Home segment.
In addition to its multi-media features, this HCL Beanstalk is packed with a variety
of rich & user-friendly bundles such as the Microsoft Encarta encyclopedia,
and very rich School education software.