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Wal-Mart to Offer Wal-Mart Notebooks
ducomputergeek writes "Cnet News.com is running an article that Wal-Mart plans to launch its own line of notebook computers. I wonder if these will run Lindows or XP. We've purchased a couple low cost boxes with no OS's for cheap file servers and they've worked pretty well."
They are rebranded machines from Asia, so expect about the same level of linux/*BSD/etc support as any other obscure lowest bidder import type of notebook (kludgy but improving). It will be interesting to see if this takes off though. Laptops are, for many people, more of a fashion accessory than a computing device (think marketroid/execubot wannabe gearheads). Walmart brand laptop wouldn't have the same fashion value as a "Ubertron Mega Wassus 90009".
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"For the same reason Dell and Gateway can get TVs, there's no reason Wal-Mart can't get computers," Baker said.
I really hope Wal-Mart decides to sell notebooks with both Lindows and Windows. It will never be mentioned in the press, but many people would buy the cheaper of the two, then chuck Lindows and replace it with a pirated copy of Windows.
Microsoft will no doubt fight this tooth and nail. They know that seeing two identical machines side by side in Wal-Mart, people will see how expensive Windows really is. Then there will be more reason to mainstream more Linux software, especially games.
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Alienware and Sager both already sell Clevo laptops as their own house brand (after neon spraypaint, etc.). Pretty good units, so a Walmart-branded one might be an OK computer.
There are already comments whining about Walmart quality - how much differentiation is there among the vast majority of PC's today anyhow? Sure there's always premium gear, but most of the stuff for sale in stores, whether it says WalMart, HP, or Dell on it is all low-end gear designed for price, and will probably last out its useful lifecycle.
It is surprising how WalMart is making the high-tech play; netflix, itunes, now laptops, yet they've skipped consumer electronics (no walmart-branded TV's, DVD players, etc.). Their other areas for house brands are clothing and pharmaceuticals - seems like they target areas where they think there is alot of profit, and try to take some fat out of it.
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It is immensely difficult to compete with a corporation that gets massive amounts of government assistance in tax incentives and loans. The idea that Walmart won in the marketplace isn't true. They beg local governments for preferntial treatment in everything from tax treatment to land zoning. These are the reason Walmarts prices can get so low. Corporate welfare for the largest retailer in the world.
How quickly we have all forgotten, from just weeks ago, Walmart's hiring of illegal aliens too.
Wal-Mart is the Microsoft of stores. Wal-Mart is crushing American companies. They demand lower prices, forcing American companies to outsource overseas, causing losses of American jobs. If they cannot or will not cut the prices to levels that require slave labor, Wal-Mart goes to overseas companies. The result? Americans who shop at Wal-Mart are shopping themselves out of a job.
As long as it can boot Linux, who cares? I could easily put a Tux sticker over the logo.
The businesses who cant cut their unit price low enough for WalMart to give them the time of day, thats who.
WalMart doesn't have low-low prices everyday because they like you. They've got these prices because they can pressure businesses into cutting their prices so low they barely make anything.
"If Wal-Mart, which sells PCs from companies such as Hewlett-Packard and eMachines, moves into the notebook market successfully, it could send ripples across the PC industry. The retailer's typically aggressive pricing could compel manufacturers such as Dell, HP and Toshiba to reduce their notebook prices in response, analysts said."
... commodity commodity commodity commodity "
I KNOW there are people who hate Walmart, but I don't. Any store that forces hardware prices down to closer to manufacturing cost is fine by me. Over priced hardware has made over price software viable for far too long. I want to PAY for true innovation and pay commodity prices for things that have long since become commodities.
Picture a big fat guy dancing around on stage clapping his hands:
"commodity commodity commodity commodity
"Give it up for MEEEEE"
Because clearly, anyone who is against corporate strongarming must be living off mommy and daddy.
Guess what, junior? I'm 23, live completely off my own buck and have since I was 17, and I still have the balls to stand against a corporation that abuses capitalism.
They don't complain, but they probably should.
The reason many consumers are so desperate for Wal-Mart's "Low, Low Prices" is because the ever-increasing demand for said prices has priced most of American manufacturing labor out of the market. Eventually, there will come a point where there just isn't enough money in consumer pockets to make it worth Wal-Mart's time to sell to American consumers. At that point, they'll just take the money they sucked out of the economy and go elsewhere.
Wal-Mart destroys local competitors, eliminating jobs. Wal-Mart puts the hammerlock on its suppliers, forcing them to continue finding ways to lower their costs. Eventually, the only fat left to trim is the luxury of using "expensive" American labor instead of labor from countries that don't have pesky things like "minimum wage," "occupational safety," "environmental regulations," and the like. Wal-Mart even screws over its own employees, merrily cutting benefits even as their profits continue to climb.
No, the average family shopping at Wal-Mart is simply going to be grateful that they can get stuff for so little. They don't realize that the low prices are a result of the same forces that have been taking money out of their pocket.
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
If you read the history of the original catalog retailers, like Montgomery Wards and Sears, you will find that they were hated when they first started expanding, because they were killing small town stores (that had no competition and could keep prices high). They would organize catalog burnings. Now of course, Sears is struggling and Ward is gone. Things change, especially in retailing.
There are a number of other retailers you could throw in the "once seen as powerful destuctive forces, now pretty much gone" - Woolworth, K-Mart, A&P. All were seen as destroying "mom and pop" stores, and all are pretty much destroyed, or at least not nearly as powerful as they used to be.
Even now, Target seems to be beating the heck out of Wal-Mart. I know tons of people who shop at Target, myself included, while I know no walmart regulars.
So I predict that eventually something will replace walmart, in the same way it replaced a ton of businesses that "nobody could compete with".
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