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Linux PCs Discontinued at Wal-Mart Stores

Posted by Zonk on from the we-barely-knew-ye dept.

eldavojohn writes "The $200 Linux PCs discussed earlier last year have been discontinued for sale at Wal-Mart's physical locations, though they will remain for sale at walmart.com. All this despite the systems repeatedly selling out. From the article, 'Paul Kim, brand manager for Everex, said selling the gPC online was "significantly more effective" than selling it in stores.'"

9 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. Normal by LingNoi · · Score: 5, Informative

    Don't Walmart bring products in and out all the time, I fail to see the "omg linux failure" here..

    1. Re:Normal by QuantumG · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Umm, dude, you're still not getting it. They sold out both online and in stores. The most likely reason that Wal-Mart is pulling these from the store is that they are getting too much interest and tying up staff. Customer service is suffering as a result. If Wal-Mart hires more staff that will increase the cost of the product and may decrease the demand, resulting in an elastic effect on sales.. so it is easier to pull the product from stores and require customers to buy it online where they won't be tying up customer service agents.

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      How we know is more important than what we know.
    2. Re:Normal by QuantumG · · Score: 5, Insightful

      you can't find a reference because it is FUD and you know it.

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
  2. Re:No worries, mate by kaos07 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just go get the cheapest Windows PC you can find (they have a sticker that says "Vista Capable" or "Vista Ready") and install Linux. It's cheaper than buying a dedicated Linux machine. Actually the cheapest PC available on Walmar is $278. Exactly the same as the Linux model but comes with Vista Home Basic.
  3. mmm yes by EEPROMS · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I see were you are going with that now, replace the word "effective" with "profitable"

  4. Re:More interesting from the article.. by SnoopJeDi · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't know about you, but I just keep reusing the same oscilloscope from system to system...

  5. Re:Once again... by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No. That would be the Walmart management that prevailed. Walmart don't care if those Linux systems sell out all the time, because selling these systems in preference to a Windows PC ends up costing them money.

    While the Linux users are off using apt-get to download all their packages, Windows users have to return to the store to buy their Anti-virus software, Office packages, games etc. Windows users will continue to generate income long after they have got their neighbor's kid to setup the PC for them.

    Sure, there are some Windows users who know about all the free software available for that platform. These people won't generate any extra income for the retailer, but they would not have anyway, so they are out of the equation.

    Finally, I have always wondered how many returns they get from people who thought that the computer was faulty because it would not run all their software they already owned. It is possible that Walmart wants to avoid losing good will of their less technically inclined customers who think that they are selling broken PCs

  6. Re:No worries, mate by shellbeach · · Score: 5, Funny

    Actually he said "on Walmart". He was obviously referring to the small town in South Wales. Actually, he said "on Walmar" (no 't'). http://www.walmar.net/ doesn't seem to sell many PCs, but they do feature a zero-flush waterless urinal which sounds pretty similar to Vista basic if you ask me ...
  7. Re:Once again... by cp.tar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Exactly. This is business. Kudos to Walmart for even trying to sell Linux PCs. They realized it was not a viable business decision and moved on.

    They only stopped selling them in stores, which sounds to me they will still offer them online.

    It seems it was not that much of a non-viable business decision; it merely suffered from anomalies.
    Low-end Linux PCs are a rather non-standard item, and my best guess is that most people who'd bought them were geeks who'd wanted a cheap Linux toy. Or to give a computer-illiterate family member a low-end computer.
    And they bought them online.

    Thus there was a significant disproportion in the numbers of sales — most units were sold online, so of course the execs deemed the online market more profitable for this kind of article. That may prove to be a misguided long-term decision, but it makes perfect sense in short term.

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