Dell today announced its redesigned Vostro laptop line for small businesses, including the new 13.3-inch Vostro 1310 starting at $749 and 15.4-inch Vostro 1510 starting at $599. Products are available today in Europe, Middle East and Africa, followed by North and South America May 1, and Asia Pacific and Japan May 5. The company will also offer a redesigned 17-inch Vostro 1710 laptop in mid May."Listening to customers and acting quickly on their feedback to improve our products and services sets Dell apart," said Frank Muehleman, vice president and general manager, Dell Small and Medium Business. "For example, customers told us in a recent global laptop study that data protection and pre-installed security software are, by far, the most important security features.

"They also said they wanted thinner and lighter machines, all at a good price," Muehleman said. "We paid attention."

The new Vostro laptops deliver the following customer-driven features:

• A sleek design, with slot load optical drive, that is thinner and lighter than previous generation Vostro laptops;
  The display screen of the new Vostro 13.3-inch has 94 percent the viewing area of a 14.1-inch model, yet weighs nearly 20 percent less;
• Continuation of Dell's 30-day worry-free return policy;
• Available with no trialware and free services including 10GB of Dell DataSafe Online Backup, Network Assistant and PC TuneUp; and
• Vostro 1310 and 1510 laptops offer more security features than comparable competitive products with integrated fingerprint readers, Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 helping prevent unauthorized network access and data theft, cable lock slot, and Dell-exclusive, factory-installed McAfee Total Protection for Small Business security software.

Small businesses are increasingly adopting laptops over desktop PCs. Today, half of PC-owning small businesses in the United States own laptops, and the number is expected to grow to almost 57 percent by 2012, with similar laptop penetration in Western Europe and Japan.

To address this shift and provide more choice to customers, Dell plans to expand its laptop portfolio by 50 percent this year, to deliver the broadest product lineup in the company's history.

"After experiencing the productivity gains of the Dell Vostro 1510 compared to our older systems, I knew it was time to act on our dream to upgrade our IT network," said Cynthia Ebrom, founder and owner of Edinburg, Texas-based Cynthia's Cakes. "As our custom cake business expands nationally, technology becomes even more important to our growth and ability to better serve our customers. Vostro gives us the reliability, performance, service and support we need without exceeding our tight budget."