September 1, 2005 The Hummer brand is one of the most potent on the planet. Burned deep into the global psyche by the televised wars of Eastern Europe, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq, the Hummer is instantly recognisable and indistinguishable from America’s military dominance. As a brand, it carries with it all the brand values of the battlefield and the most technologically dominant fighting force since the Romans – reliability and ruggedness, with a liberal splashing of distilled testosterone and topped off with “essence of Arnie” thanks to the screen tough guy’s sponsorship of the brand.
Hummer’s Fragrance for Menwas one thing, but this time the brand extension has much more relevance. – the Hummer Ruggedised Computer. We’ve recently written about the Panasonic Toughbook’s role in an Everest ascent, and as more people take computers into hostile environments, ruggedised computers will become a robust and established market segment with Panasonic’s Toughbook and ruggedised computer specialist Itronix the lead players.
Based on the GoBook VR-1 semi-rugged computer that will be released by Itronix later this month, the Hummer-branded VR-1 will be a "semi-rugged" notebook computer designed to be much tougher than the average laptop and capable of withstanding temperature extremes and hard knocks.
The 12 inch Windows XP Hummer VR-1 has a 1.86GHz Intel Centrino Pentium M chip set with a 80GB removable hard drive and a swappable radio module that allows users to switch between North American and European GPRS/EDGE wireless plans. There’s also 512MB of memory, a DVD/CD-R/W combination drive, and 8021.11a/g/b wireless connectivity.
The Hummer laptop will be available in black and silver with yellow, red or pewter-gray trim and will be priced at US$2988.
The Hummer laptop’s battery life is approximately four hours which can be pushed to seven hours with a battery extender.
Finally, and perhaps most significantly, the Hummer –branded laptop will be available at Hummer car dealerships from November 1– now that is a first!
