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Free PCs Not AfFordable

Posted by michael on from the factory-recall dept.

rakerman writes: "Ford Cancels Computer Giveaway Program. I guess their 'Model E' program turned out to be an Edsel." We did at least one story about this at the time (and a Katz essay). A lot of people pointed out that the United Auto Workers union was the driving force (ha-ha) behind this program initially.

1 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. how much did it cost? by trb · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    The article states: Olsen said Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HWP - news) supplied the computers and printers Ford purchased for the Model E program. He said he was unable to comment on the program's cost.

    Gee whiz, you'd think these guys don't have an envelope with a back on it. 166,000 people each got a computer. In early 2000, 500MHz Celeron, 4G disk, printer, modem, cdrom, speakers, monitor, rudimentary software. A thousand bucks a pop in quantity? They were charging $5 a month for net service, probably broke even on that. So $166 million for the 166k folks that they equipped. By now, such a machine can be had for less than $500, so to cover everyone it might have come to $250M in all. Sssh, it's a secret.