Companies that vanished: Compaq -- from dinner napkin idea to market leader

Brian White — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:40:00 EST

Filed under: Products and Services, Consumer Experience, Competitive Strategy, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Texas Instruments (TXN), Entrepreneurs

This post is part of a series on some of the most memorable companies that have disappeared.

Once upon a time, there was a computer brand called Compaq. It was one of the largest sellers of PCs in the entire world in the 1980s and 1990s. Then 2002 comes and Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ) merges with the company. The end.

Well, sounds like a short-lived story, and in actuality, it was. Compaq existed for only 20 years (1982 - 2002) before being gobbled up by then-CEO Carly Fiorina of HP to make HP's market share as large as possible. Compaq was mostly thought of as a quality brand from many system administrators I talked to back in the late 1990s, although I heard more horror stories from consumers that owned Compaq PCs. Apparently, the "compatibility" and "quality" that made up the Compaq name wasn't jiving with many consumers who bought its machines.

Compaq, formed on a few dinner napkins in Houston by three former Texas Instruments (NASDAQ: TXN) executives, and became a force to be dealt with in the market for consumer PCs in the 1990s. In fact, it was one of the first manufacturers to dip its toe into making sub-$1,000 PCs, which are now commonplace with every PC manufacturer. The Deskpro, Systempro and Presario were all Compaq brand names, all the way until it merged with HP. HP still markets a few desktop and laptop systems as "Compaq" brands to this day, probably due to just having a few more flavors on the candy shelf for customers to choose over.

But, the name is all that remains from Compaq's 20-year history. Do you miss the company? If you owned one of Compaq's real machines (to this day), sound off below and let us know what you like and don't like about this vanished brand.

Let us know in the comments what you miss about Compaq. And be sure to check out other Companies That Have Vanished.

Companies that vanished: Compaq -- from dinner napkin idea to market leader originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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$99 holiday laptop coming to Circuit City

Brian White — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 13:31:00 EST

Filed under: Rumors, Products and Services, Consumer Experience, Competitive Strategy, Wal-Mart (WMT), Marketing and Advertising, Best Buy (BBY), Circuit City Stores (CC), Black Friday

Just when we thought the Black Friday rumors were not going any further in terms of Blockbuster-ish frenzy, Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE:CC) will have a reported $99 laptop computer available on Black Friday. Actually, the system will be $299 after rebates -- possibly matching an offer by competitor Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) but priced above a rumored $199 laptop from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT). The Circuit City laptop, however, will be just $99 after a customer signs up with Internet phone provider Vonage.

Circuit City's featured notebook will be a rather bland but functional Compaq system that features a Celeron processor from Intel rather than processors from Advanced Micro Devices, and it will also come with an optical drive that burns both DVDs and CDs -- not just CDs like the rumored Wal-Mart laptop (and that's a huge upgrade). The circuit City laptop will also come with 512MB of memory, a 15.4-inch screen and a 60GB hard drive.

Is Circuit City poised to have the "official" lowest Black Friday holiday price on a new laptop computer? The retailer currently sells the Compaq notebook for $499 as of today, and says that the computer ordinarily lists for $680. In order to get to the $299 price, Circuit City gives consumers a $280 instant rebate at the store and a coupon for a $100 mail-in rebate ($680-$380=$299). Sign up for Vonage in two weeks and get another $200 off. Where will you shop?

$99 holiday laptop coming to Circuit City originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 15 Nov 2006 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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