Acer aspires to take the notebook lead from HP. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. With its purchase of Gateway last year....and then the acquisition of Packard Bell....Acer became the third largest maker of personal computers behind Hewlett Packard and Dell. Now the company has set a goal of becoming number one in notebooks over the next two years. It is focusing on features and design to help achieve that....and the latest models are being called Gemstone Blue. Acer's director of mobility Sumit Agnihotry...says with 16 and 18 inch screens...the models are aimed at consumers looking to use the machines as full fledged entertainment hubs....

"Well one of the things that this notebook offers is the ability to have a full 5.1 sound from Dolby. And from a display perspective it is 1080p, full HD and optional Blu-ray."

Pricing will start at about a thousand dollars and go up to about double that. The Gemstone Blue notebooks have a unique touch sensitive controller adjacent to the keyboard for controlling the multimedia features. And the screen sizes allow true 16 by 9 viewing...

"So when you're watching a DVD, you're getting a similar experience when you watch it on your television with full 1080p experience, with 5.1 Dolby digital surround. It's almost bringing your TV on the go. And that's kind of the concept, and that's kind of the positioning of this platform. Taking digital entertainment on the go with the launch of our 16 and 18 inch platforms."

Some models include TV tuners and voice over IP phone capability as well. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.