Dell has chopped UK list prices for the Latitude Series 3 corporate notebook line by up to 17 per cent. The cuts range from £100 to £300 for the top-of-the-line 1.8GHz C840 unit and reflect recent falls in component prices, the company says.

Dell's direct model means that it can make changes "without having to go through complicated bureaucracy" - in other words it can cut prices more quickly than HP.

The PC maker cites research from IDC which finds that pricing is a "key issue" for IT managers when buying notebooks for their company.

"Technology, total cost of ownership, and manageability also remain important factors." Of course. But headline purchase prices are so much easier to understand. ®