HP’s event was neither an all out, haute couture gathering that left out the teeming masses of geeky sub-culture, nor was it a dry and tedious affair with charts and graphs full of technical details that would have driven off the fashion cognoscenti.

It was a straightforward gathering: “Here are the laptops, look with your eyes. Feel with your hands. Experience how it feels to use and to hold”. After all, when it comes down to the essentials, that’s the purpose of a product launching. Yet there was a marked difference in the presentation. The laptops were not on a pedestal, on a stage, out of reach and seen only through a camera’s lenses. They were carried by models who moved around the venue’s floor – mixing with the crowd, a simply clad trio of somber black and curvaceous white in a media sea of garish color.

These models mixed with the crowd, striking in their beauty, reflecting the laptops they were carrying. I find it hard at the moment to put down the names of the laptops, they were simply Sleek, Imprinted and Personal to my eyes. Understand though, that these are simply how I named these laptops when I laid eyes on the trio.

“Sleek” would be the TX1000, with its swiveling screen and touch sensitive interface. It possessed no unsightly black rectangle for a touchpad, in place was a graduated number of indentations, silver on silver. It can serve as a notepad, cradled casually against crook of arm, light and sophisticated.

“Imprinted” would be the DV2000 with its Special Edition - it has a definitive verve with its imprinted design – which incidentally is the name of the design that HP has given it. Long-lasting with its 12-cell battery, it is designed to look good and perform well.

“Personal” would be the Compaq Presario, which sports a fingerprint based design to perhaps signify the touch of ownership. Rarely will you find two fingerprints that are similar, yet the Compaq with its new design and clean new logo will undoubtedly elicit feelings of connection and ownership in all.

It is difficult to realize my own enthusiasm for a product so focused on outward appearances. Our publication, after all, is entitled “hardwarezone” – and of the two groups mentioned in the first paragraph I am of most certainty part of the “sub-culture”. It is definitely true that functionality is important yet I also see how the market cannot be sustained by mere specifications, design and fashion should be given equal footing in considering a laptop purchase. After all, the car industry cannot sell a vehicle based only on how many passengers it can carry, nor just the horsepower rating of its engine. As much as products for convenience, cars are also symbols of status and good taste - we want to look good in them.

The market for laptops in the Philippines has also reached that stage of convergence; fashion and functionality, personality and practicality combines into something that the potential buyer will want to own rather than just need to own. Even in my inclusion in the vaunted ranks of “geekdom”, I find myself perhaps representative of the buyer who wants the laptop in the window, but doesn’t actually need it – yet in the end buys it anyway because it is after all, a convenience – we as consumers are no longer at the stage of “need” or requirement, we want to look good with these laptops.

HP is pointing out the way with the product launch of the HP Pavilion, Special Edition and Compaq Presario: No longer can specifications be considered the battleground of brands. No longer will design be an afterthought tacked on to pacify individualism. Both must be considered, and combined. The event showed us the direction; no the realization, of HP as evidenced in this trio of laptop models: There can be no shadow without light, and no function without style.