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On Saturday, Aug. 2, I bought "Aerosmith Guitar Hero III" at a local Target for my daughter's birthday. While waiting for the box to be pulled from the glass case, I saw something new in this one Target: laptops for sale. Two HP notebooks, priced at $699.99, were on display. The 14-inch model simply stunned with its features: 14.1-inch display, 2GHz processor, 4GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive. Can you say desktop replacement? Cheap?

The 15.4-inch model only packed 3GB of RAM and 250GB. The smaller computer was listed for $849.99 but was on sale for $150 less. The model appears to be nearly identical to another HP model sold online, the Pavilion DV2946NR. I recall the numbers as being the same, but Target's Web site indicates that the DV2946NR is not available in stores. Regardless, the online model comes with Windows Vista Business, while the one I saw in the store had Windows Home Premium on the sales label.

GOT A TIP OR RUMOR?

[Editor's Note: I will be on vacation this week, so posting will be lighter than usual. But I can still be reached by cell phone or e-mail, as needed.]

Whoa, $699 for a retail notebook with 4GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive? I got to wondering about average selling prices, so today I contacted Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis. That smaller HP notebook is right on mark: ASP for retail Windows notebooks is $700.

But the prices are remarkably stable, and I attribute some of the floor to the operating system as percentage cost of the total computer. "We aren't seeing any particularly substantive moves down in price on the Windows side, either in desktops or notebooks," Stephen said.

Since summer 2006, desktop ASPs have changed little. By comparison, the average notebook sold for $177 less in June than it did two years earlier. But ASPs are no longer free-falling. The average notebook ASP was just $714 in May.