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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."
I distinctly remember Microsoft doing something similar with their $400 rebate for signing up for three years of MSN. They dropped it after a year or two. AOL's deal seems more financially risky to me, I wonder how they can pull it off.
Auto-reply to ACs: "Truly, you have a dizzying intellect."
Also, the numbers for how much this computer is worth don't factor the right things in. Anyone who'd go for this deal needs some sort of ISP to begin with, and the $23.90/month may be higher than other ISPs, but does give the customer something of value beyond the PC. On the other hand, is that really a $699 computer?
Mencken had it right. So glad that's old news.
"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.
My sig is blank, I typed this by hand.
...maybe they could get the price down to $199, hmmm?
;)
Don't flip out on me, it was just a thought...
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
Considering you can get a much better machine for much cheaper. Check out:
http://gotapex.com
You'll find BETTER Dell machines for ~$400 with 6 months of AOL included!
It IS StarOffice (with obligatory AOL logos). One step closer to an AOL-Linux release I think.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
They give you the fine print in gif form just to make sure it's difficult for you to read the text. The resolution isn't really fine enough for the text to be legible at any magnification, but it appears that the finance rate is 23.9% or 25.9%
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
Obviously Apple hadn't mastered the naming schemes back in 1993. Had it been named iWorld, it would most likely have been a bashingly successful venture.
More info: eWorld
now supporting:
cmdrTaco for president '04
michael for oval office intern summer '05
You really need to review this. I saw the story this AM (EST) and throughly reviewed the deal because I'd like to upgrade my mother's computer which is a currently a pc200mhz with 64mb of memory as a Xmas present.
l egal1.as p?vcid=a2&srccode=subp2b447688
Here's the fine print (beware the fine print is a image file):
http://www.aolcheckout.com/aol-pc/aol01b-
"$299 Financed plus a one-year committment to AOL for 23.90"...did you read financed?
my take on the deal...
according to the fine print, you are issued a Tiger Gold Card with approve credit from Wells Fargo, furthermore, the regular APR is 21.9% (i think, the fine print is very small).
so now you have a credit card from a company with a really high interest rate! "Boom!" as Madden 2004 would say. That is the hook for AOL, they can make some money by establishing new customers for a credit card company.
Its seems like a nice deal on the front end.
-- ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space!
You are telling me that you want people who are, almost by definition, too stupid to get a real Internet connection to have a LINUX PC? Damn, just invite the crackers to go nuts directly why don't ya? :)
Seriously though, these are the kind fo people who would whine about Lindows since it's different. Doesn't matter how much the same it is, they'd whine and not use it.
I mean an AOL user here at work got her computer upgraded from 98 to 2k (new computer). From a user standpoint there is almost no difference. She was even used to loggin in since network shares required it. None the less she found about a million things to whine abou. One was that when you open explorer in 98 it goes to the C drive, in 2k it goes to your home directory. She bitched and moaned that this was confusing/difficult/took time/etc till we found a fix.
No man, you do NOT want these people on Linux, espically not one that is logged in as root by default.
With this action AOL controls everything from the OS to the Word Processor to the web sites their customers browse.
When did my girlfriend start working at AOL?
You cannot consider the entire cost of AOL access to be "interest" in this interesting calculation. You must consider that you are receiving something of value in addition to just the computer. THe way to calculate the effective financing rate is to take the difference between the cost of AOL and the cost of another equivalent access service, say, Earthlink, which I believe is $15/mo or so...
So, (12*(23.90-15))+299 = $405.80...
Ok, so let's see what I can buy that system for.
I just purchased two small machines, Athlon 1900+, 256MB Ram, 40GB Hard disks, with integrated I/O and everything for $280 each delivered. A 17" monitor can be had for about $100 and a cheap-ass Lexmark printer is about $50. What's that come out to? $430? and it's a MUCH MUCH MUCH faster machine...
So the bottom line is that this deal is marginal at best, and with AOL's buying power, it's probably very profitable in the end. They can probably put that machine together for about $200-250.
"$299 with a $20+ a month lock-in contract, so what they really mean is something closer to about $450."
You're exaggerating by leaving out the fact that they're getting AOL access, which millions of people are paying $20+ a month for without getting a cheap PC. If you think that AOL service is worth nothing, then your math works, I suppose, but...
Enable 3D printed prosthetics!
AOL's "1. Mail computers 2. ??? 3. Profit!!!" plan is as follows:
Savvy computer users will figure out that erasing the hard drive and installing their own OS removes the 1045 hour time limit, and removing the TNT from inside the computer case completely eliminates the possibility of the computer blowing up.
Then, in an RIAA-like effort, AOL will sue hundreds of thousands of individuals for illegally using their computers, which constitute valuable intellectual property. They will ignore the fact that by law, when they send something in the mail, it becomes the property of the recipient. It will take a long time for this to get to the courts, in order for the courts to throw it out, and in the meantime, many frightened teenagers will settle with AOL for amounts greatly exceeding the market value of the computers.
Clean profits for AOL.
Uh no - it is actually somewhere in the $25 dollar range (plus the cost of any media that they ship along with it, and also first line tech support)
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
Insurance companies should do this!
You could sign up for a 2 year policy with Geico, and get a '89 Mercury station wagon, with external wood paneling, for only $300 bucks!
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
"The math ( (12*23.90)+299 ) seems to suggest that you can get a $699 computer for $585.80 plus any finance charges"
This math is only correct if you assume that there's no value in having AOL dial access. If you think that AOL access is worth the $23.90 a month that millions of people are already paying for it, you're getting a $699 computer for $585.80 plus any finance charges, plus agreeing to stay on AOL for a year.
This doesn't sound any more sleazy than cell phone companies giving you a heavily discounted cell phone in return for a commitment for longer service. If you don't want to make the commitment, don't sign the contract, and don't take the up front discount.
To me, this looks like a decent way for people who aren't online to get online very cheaply and learn whether they want to spend more for broadband, etc., later.
Enable 3D printed prosthetics!
You know, as much as it pains me to say this... Uh...
:O OMFG - I SAID IT!
:O Oh Shit! I just said that too!!!
:)
I've actually started to recommend AOL to people!
There it is. I'm sorry. But there is some reasoning here, if you all won't mod me down as a troll first.
The main reason has to do with AOL 9's control of spyware, parental rules for Internet usage, and yes, ease of use. For some users out there this is exactly what they need. AOL's numbers aren't near as high as they used to be due to user savvy, but they do still serve a purpose. Think of all your friends/relative's computers you've had to run AdAware or Spybot on recently and you have to agree...
Even on broadband!
Bad Dobby! Bad BAD BAD!!!
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
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.
Can I get an eye poke?
Dog House Forum
You can get dial-up Internet access with no AOL bullshit and a cool PC starting at only $20/month from PeoplePC while paying NOTHING down.
You can buy a PC for $200 at wal-mart.
go AOL. tsk.
Extraordinary Vacations. Exceptional Prices
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
I have blog like everyone else
The 17" monitor goes for $83 retail.
The printer is probably worth less than $20.
So, if getting a [$200+$83+$20=] $303 PC for about $600 sounds like a good deal, then AOL is your savior! (!!)
Sadly, AOL is going after those least-informed of consumers with this deal, so they'll probably find a fair number of takers.
For those who don't consider AOL worthless, let's consider the cost of ISP service on top. A quick query here tells me that it's easy to get dial up for $8/month or less.
So....[$303+($8*12mths)=] $399 worth of "internet experience" for $699.
I used to work in a camera store that sold cell phones, too. (Don't ask me why a camera store would bother will cell phones, because I'm still not sure.) One thing I learned: mobile phones still cost the phone companies more than the 99 dollars they sell them for -- the companies are swallowing the cost of the phone because they hope to make it up with a few years of phone bills.
It works, too, because... (wait for it)... people don't want to change their phone numbers. (Another reason the cell companies dislike number portability). AOL is assuming the same thing will happen with their service -- customers will decide it's too much work to change it, stick with AOL for years, and repay AOL's investment.
(Besides, AOL is an evil megacorporation. If they don't make their money back, they'll just find a way to write it off on their taxes.)
Proud to be / Smiley-free / Since Nineteen / Ninety-Three