Coming soon: PCs based on young users' dreams
3 Nov 2008, 1131 Hrs

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London, November 3 Intel and ASUS are urging people to dream about and tell them what do they want in an ideal computer so that they could design PCs in accordance with the user community's desires.

The companies have created a website, WePC.com, to enable people to share and comment on ideas to "enable a global conversation about the ideal elements of a PC."

Both companies insist that they are actually committed to building an ideal machine based on their customers' feedbacks.

"The spark for innovation can come from anywhere," the BBC quoted Intel's Mike Hoeffinger as saying.

He further said that both companies had joined forces "to tap into the creative energy of consumers...and give people a voice in the design of technology they use every day."

Lillian Lin, the director of marketing and planning at ASUS,

While most technology tycoons ask for customer feedback, this is the first time that when a product will be designed completely in accordance with the customer's suggestions.

Lillian Lin, the director of marketing and planning at ASUS, said: "By empowering WePC.com users to play a role in the design process, we expect to deliver cutting-edge community-designed products that address a consumer vision of the dream PC."

ASUS and Intel will also award prizes to some for their creative efforts.

"Your designs, feature ideas and community feedback will be evaluated by ASUS and could influence the blueprint of an actual notebook PC built by ASUS with Intel inside," said the website.

Josh Mattison of Federated Media, which is involved in the marketing campaign, said: "Everyone is very aware there is a commitment from everyone involved. If you start a conversation with your customers, the first step is knowing their voices will be heard and incorporating that into those companies' larger thought processes. That is absolutely something you can expect to see."

The PC user community will be divided into three "conversation groups", and then they will address three of the most popular consumer PC categories-namely netbooks, notebooks, and gaming notebooks.

"There is no limit to creativity. And there is no forum quite like this for expressing that. Let those ideas flow, whether it's concerning something purely functional like battery life or something a bit more 'out there' like a computer needing a haircut every two weeks," said Mattison.

Some of the suggestions for the community-designed PC already include a ghetto blaster laptop with woofers and tweeters, and a "happy laptop" that would wake the user up in the morning. (ANI)