[Sussex] Taking the battle to the big boys

[Geoff Teale]

Chaps,

I'm sure several of you have already seen on Slashdot that the US$199 PC
Walmart are selling in the US preloaded with LINUX is selling far more units
than expected (despite so called industry experts claiming that it would
only be of interest to a few techie people who know LINUX).

Well, the latest from walmart (who may, it must be said be biased) is that
they now believe that over the last month this package has been the best
selling computer in the world and that sales are accelerating following the
current round of press coverage.

Walmart are doing what they do best, they're competing on price.  Bundling
LINUX means they can sell a PC for more than a US$100 less than their
competition (Evasham are trying something similar in this country).

I belive we've reached the much talked about hardware price point where
software costs are more significant than hardware costsn and the power of
your machine is rapidly becoming irrelevant to the average user.  It'll be
interesting to see how this pans out in the USA. 

There is talk that the bundle may be duplicated in Asda stores in the UK -
at this price point it could well trigger a home computing revolution in the
way the launch of the Sinclair, BBC and Commodore machines did in the early
1980's.

We wait with baited breath... 

-- 
GJT
geoff.teale at claybrook.co.uk




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