AOL's $299 PC

cmj writes "Internet.com reports 'Looking to attract households that still aren't online, AOL is offering new customers a $299 PC system if they sign a one-year $23.90 dial-up Internet service contract.' A click through AOL's ecommerce site reveals the the specs as 1.7 GHz Celeron with 256 MB RAM, 40 GB hard drive, 56K modem, 10/100ethernet card, 17" monitor and Lexmark printer. The PC is running Windows XP, and includes 'AOL Office Powered by Sun'. Also of note is the fact that the $299 appears to be financed at around 22%. The math ( (12*23.90)+299 ) seems to suggest that you can get a $699 computer for $585.80 plus any finance charges. Setting aside the question of whether this is a good deal or not, one has to wonder whether AOL is desperate for new customers and resorting to bribery, or just progressing to the next step of branding. With this action AOL controls everything from the OS to the Word Processor to the web sites their customers browse."

Comments

wha?

[wankledot]

"controling"?

How are they controling you? Do they prohibit you from visiting other sites or installing another OS/Apps? Just because they install some default image, that doesn't mean they're controling what you do with the system.

Re:If this shipped with Lindows instead...

[Anonymous Coward]

AOL is a big company, why don't they just make thier own distro of Linux and slap in this computer???

Re:If this shipped with Lindows instead...

[Chordonblue]

I think with them shipping this with StarOffice that ARE that much closer. Word is that they already have an Linux-based distro but have been sitting on it. You would think that with their fortunes failing, this might be a good time to try a new approach. With this $299 deal, I think only MS will make any real profit.

Linux w/ AOL

[DA-MAN]

I have before, it's not too hard at all.

In fact there is a small tutorial on how to connect to AOL with Linux.

I wonder if this offer is valid with AOL Broadband, that way you could be on Broadband, and still have a cheap PC.

Re:So wait

[rolocroz]

I don't think that Windows XP is any better. What I really think is that computers just shouldn't default to root. As someone else mentioned, Mac OS X is the one consumer OS that gets this right: root isn't even enabled by default, and sudo is the only way to act as root without mucking around with NetInfo. If Lindows didn't have that stupid security flaw, it would be a better choice for machines like AOL's.

Do not fear AOL

[rcastro0]

With this action AOL controls everything from the OS to the Word Processor to the web sites their customers browse."

That is funny. Down here in Brazil AOL is advertising on TV "New AOL: Now With No Installation CD Required". They had taken a serious beating trying to push forward their proprietary browser and now they have thrown the towel, and decided to become a more vanilla ISP, working with any regular browser. In case you are wondering: yes, that is desperate. They are not even a top three ISP in Brazil, after (how many? 3, 4?) years of throwing tons of cash in advertising and promotions.

It comes to prove IMHO that AOL's current positioning in the US market is a "path dependent" phenomenon, coming to be by a succession of (unlikely) historic events, and by no means natural. I do not fear AOL controling or dominating anything. It seems to me the only thing they are trying to do is to control their downhill slide.

One last thing. I thought you would be interested to know that AOL Brasil has a Linux download area, and that they are recommending Netscape 7.0 as a browser. I'm not sure, but I believe this has no parallel in AOL other markets.

One very interesting thing about this

[MadAnthony02]

I visited the website and noticed it looked oddly familiar. Did a whois on it, and it showed up as being registered to online computer merchant tigerdirect.com . It's interesting that TigerDirect isn't mentioned anywhere on the page, nor do they mention it on their main page.

Seems like it's almost more that Tigerdirect wants to sell more machines than AOL trying to get more users.

299pcdeal.com

Domain name: 299pcdeal.com

Registrant Contact:
tigerdirect.com
Domain Admin (lonny.paul@tigerdirect.com)
-
Fax: none
7795 W Flagler Street
Miami, FL 33144
USA

Administrative Contact:
tigerdirect.com
Domain Admin (lonny.paul@tigerdirect.com)
-
Fax: none
7795 W Flagler Street
Miami, FL 33144
USA

Technical Contact:
tigerdirect.com
Domain Admin (lonny.paul@tigerdirect.com)
-
Fax: none
7795 W Flagler Street
Miami, FL 33144
USA

Billing Contact:
tigerdirect.com
Domain Admin (lonny.paul@tigerdirect.com)
-
Fax: none
7795 W Flagler Street
Miami, FL 33144
USA

Status: active

Name Servers:
ns1.domain19.net
ns2.domain19.net

Creation date: 11 Sep 2003 20:56:47
Expiration date: 11 Sep 2004 20:56:47

cost?

[Lord_Dweomer]

"Setting aside the question of whether this is a good deal or not, one has to wonder whether AOL is desperate for new customers and resorting to bribery, or just progressing to the next step of branding."

Actually, now I'm starting to wonder how cheap an internet connection IS for AOL. If there are plenty of ISPs out there selling service for $9.99 a month, it makes you wonder what AOL's profit margin is on that.