Tosh pledges Y2K comfort zone

In a bid to smooth the path past the dreaded Y2K date change, Toshiba has promised platform stability for its Tecra notebooks and the Equium 7100 desktop system. Toshiba claims the decision to freeze any changes to the two machines in the run up to the millennium was prompted by the desire to address the concerns of corporate users. Toshiba said that it will keep all the factory installed components consistent until the end of January next year. Once a machine has been qualified for Y2K it will not need to be tested again nor will there be a need to re-qualify later system purchases. Toshiba rejected suggestions that the platform stability program would lead to large numbers of customers switching brands in search of the 'next big thing.' "We have designed the Tecra with upcoming CPU's in mind. Our customers will not need to defect to get hold of advances in technology," said Con Mallon, UK marketing manager at Toshiba. Research by the Gartner Group indicates that the Tecra will save $1,000 per year in corporate running costs against an average cost, stated by Gartner, of $12,000 per year. Of that, $530 is due to the platform stability plans. For the Equium range the saving due to platform stability was about $300 per year on estimated costs of $7,000. ®