On 27 May 2003 at 9:40, Bob George wrote: >"John Oram" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Did you see this one? <http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=9667> > >Interesting article. I noticed this line: > >"[...] The only stumbling block to offering such a bundle is that >Microsoft's XP is (currently) nearly as costly as the hardware to run it >on. "
I hadn't seen that particular article, but I have been expecting this for quite some time. There are small form factor computers, and have been for some years, which are sometimes available at a discount, sometimes at greater expense. In particular, I'm thinking of one that I've seen advertised regularly for the last decade or so in IT magazines, which has the entire computer, excepting display, built in underneath the keyboard. http://www.cybernetman.com The $200 price point is interesting to contemplate, though... I'm wondering if they really can get it down that far, even using an older generation Celeron or Via CPU, because the cost of the CPU is also a factor - $50 - $400. While every member of this list is aware that you can do WWW browsing, email, etc. using slower equipment, someone who purchases one of these is most likely going to want to play all the latest games, etc., which may require more CPU/video, so I suspect that this isn't going to work out as soon as the author of the article hopes. Also, much though I like it, I don't see most people wanting to go with anything but Windows, due to the installed base of games, etc, at least for the next five years or so. So, the Windows OS will most likely have to be figured into the price for a while yet. However, I do expect that $600 desktop systems are a likely price/performance point for this market. All it will take is one of the major manufacturers to make the commitment to producing these in quantity, and I think they'll be able to make that goal. $300 for hardware, $200 for Windows, and $100 profit per unit. Anthony J. Albert =========================================================== Anthony J. Albert [EMAIL PROTECTED] Systems and Software Support Specialist Postmaster Computer Services - University of Maine, Presque Isle "This is only temporary, unless it works." --- Red Green To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies. More info can be found at; http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html
