Is this the big announcement we've been waiting for?? Is anybody else a little disappointed by this? A $999 machine with no floppy drive? Where does this fit in a consumer market over flowing with sub $600 PC's. I sure hope there is a lot more to this story! Am I missing something here?
Cheers
Alohal
Dell To Unveil $999 Webpc Device In Bid To Conquer
Consumer Market
Tuesday, November 30, 1999 12:47 AM
PALO ALTO, Calif. -(Dow Jones)- Computer giant Dell Computer Corp. is expected to begin shipping on
Tuesday its Webpc, the company's first computer designed specifically for the consumer market.
Starting at $999 and including a monitor, the Webpc is smaller than a typical personal computer and comes
in gray and a choice of five colors: blue, orange, teal, red and purple, the company said. The product launch
will be backed with TV and print advertising, a Dell spokesman said.
The Webpc represents a "huge design change" for a company that has up to now built computers largely for
business use, said Schelley Olhava, an analyst at market researchers International Data Corp.
About 40% of personal computers are sold to consumers, creating a big market opportunity for a company
such as Round Rock, Texas-based Dell (DELL, news, msgs), Olhava said.
The Webpc is designed to simplify using the Internet, and it includes special keyboard buttons to check
e-mail and to connect to Internet search sites or to favorite Web locations.
It also doesn't include a floppy drive, differentiating it from more traditional PCs.
Dell said the machine, which runs Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT, news, msgs) Windows 98 operating system, will
come with a choice of Intel Corp.'s (INTC, news, msgs) Celeron chip running at 433 MHz or 466 MHz, or a
Pentium chip also from Intel.
The $999 starting price includes the Celeron 433 chip, a 15-inch monitor, a 4.3-gigabyte hard drive, a
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HWP, news, msgs) printer and one year of Internet access from Dell. |
