Free laptop with every operating system!
Free laptop with every operating system!
Well, not yet, but surely it's only a matter of time.
The recent downward trend in the price of fully-featured Windows laptops with huge hard disks rather than Flash storage indicates that this type of system may soon be given away as part of software licensing deals.
Intel reckons sub-$300 notebook PCs based on its Atom processors will be available next year, but you only have to look at the full-specification Windows XP portables already being sold by the likes of HP, Acer, Toshiba and Fujitsu Siemens for under £300 to wonder how this type of hardware will be sold in the future.
Vendors rarely charge what they think something is worth, only what they think a particular market is willing to pay for it, depending on a number of geographical and economic variables. Hence the price disparity between computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices sold in developing countries, compared to what they typically go for in western Europe.
One obvious question is how laptop manufacturers make any sort of worthwhile margin out of selling systems at such a low price? Either manufacturing and distribution costs have fallen through the floor or they have been charging completely over the odds in the past. Probably, both are true.