Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE:BBY ) is staging a marketing event to deploy two "store brand" laptops that will hopefully address two major complaints of laptop PC buyers - weight and battery life. Of course, this has been the argument for portable PCs for over a decade. The two new laptops are manufactured by Toshiba and Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ) and will be sold under the faux brand "Blue Label." This name probably signifies Best Buy's official corporate color more than anything.

Of course, both laptops will retail for $1,199, a hefty price for anything but a high-end retail laptop PC in 2008. If Best Buy is going to price these at $1,200, it better darn sure hope that there is something revolutionary about these two models. Specifically, a battery life increase of at least 50% under normal operating conditions, as well as at least 1.5 pounds less in weight than comparative models that cost half as much. A pound is hugely significant in the laptop PC weight arena -- but Best Buy needs to go beyond that for such a premium price. Agree? Disagree?

Although Best Buy is marketing these as designed by "customer feedback," there's nothing earth shattering here. Battery life and weight have always been at the forefront of wants and needs from the laptop PC consumer. Manufacturers have seen fit to continue making their wares compete with features and aesthetics more than what customers have asked for, such as Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) who clearly gets it. But the Windows PC world? Not so much. Will this be another empty promise or a half-hearted marketing move? We'll see once these two models hit store shelves and customers actually start using them.