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Microsoft to Sell PCs, Starting in India

Posted by Zonk on from the no-red-rings-on-these-i-hope dept.

kripkenstein writes "According to an Ars Technica report Microsoft will begin selling complete PCs, for the first time in the company's history. The program is aimed at customers in India. 'Dubbed the IQ PC, the machines will cost RS21,000 (about $525), are manufactured in partnership with Zenith, and will sport AMD Athlon CPUs. ... In some ways, the move to sell hardware is a natural extension of Microsoft's low-cost Windows initiative ... It may also be a response to projects like Intel's Classmate PC and the OLPC XO.' The Ars Technica summary is careful to state that they seriously doubt this will lead to Microsoft selling PCs in the US, yet the question must be asked: After Microsoft mice and keyboards, then the XBOX and Zune, Microsoft is increasingly becoming a hardware vendor. Is it only a question of time before Microsoft starts to compete directly with the likes of Dell and HP?"

6 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. oh but of course by bmecoli · · Score: 5, Funny

    I mean the best place to sell PCs would be the place where all the tech support is, right?

    1. Re:oh but of course by sconeu · · Score: 4, Funny

      And this is the argument as to why MS won't sell PCs in the US.

      They won't be able to foist off level 1 tech support onto the vendor, as *they* would be the vendor.

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    2. Re:oh but of course by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 5, Funny

      You would think so, but it turns out the Indian customers' tech support line will be answered by some underpaid guy in New York who speaks broken Hindi with a Brooklyn accent.

      --
      Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
  2. Re:Good for them... by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 5, Funny

    This really is just an extension of Microsoft's business model.

    Yeah, but shouldn't they change their name from Microsoft to Microhard ?

    Um... wait... nevermind.

  3. Re:Not Dell and HP... by Intron · · Score: 4, Funny

    HP used to be very competent in a small set of areas: the Alpha chip, Tru64 Unix, etc. Realizing that, they killed off those products. Now they are equally competent in all areas.

    --
    Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
  4. All directions at once by glas_gow · · Score: 5, Funny

    Microsoft is simultaneously going in all directions, which is identical to going nowhere fast.