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February 13, 1999
News
- As usual, an interesting week in the computer and technology
business, with several different items getting lots of press. Probably the biggest story
of the week, however, was the introduction of the Free-PC. That’s right, a free
computer. A startup company called Free PC announced that they would be giving away 10,000
free Compaq computers complete with 333 MHz Cyrix processors, 32 MB of RAM, 4 GB hard
drive, CD-ROM, 56K modem and a 14" monitor to users who sign up for their service.
The catch is, the entire screen is surrounded by advertising all the time and the company
logs where you go on the Internet. Despite these issues, apparently over 500,000 people
filled out the survey form on the company’s web site within the first few days after
the announcement. Eventually, the company said, they’d like to offer as many as
1,000,000 free computers. The company’s business model is based on the idea that they
can make enough money on advertising and aggregated user research, that they can more than
make up the cost of the computer—which has a retail value of about $500 to $600. I
have to wonder about this whole idea though because, what’s to stop me from just
wiping the hard disk and getting a free computer out of the deal? Plus, I think people
would get really sick of trying to do work with animated ads completely surrounding their
screen. Nevertheless, it does go to show how dramatically computers have come down in
price, how commoditized they’ve become, and how the Internet continues to change
everything.
- Another me-too company called One Stop Communications
announced up to 25,000 free iMacs that they plan to give away, but the terms seem
ludicrous. In order to get to the computer, you have to agree to spend $100/month for 36
months at the company’s online mall. If you don’t in a particular month, you
still get charged $100 for basically nothing.
- The Free PC was one of many interesting new products debuted
at the annual Demo conference. Another interesting product on display there was a
prototype new desktop system from NEC that’s code-named Millenium. The core unit
housing the motherboard is a tiny, flat case and it attaches to a flat-panel display. In a
sense, it’s kind of like a notebook system broken into two pieces and repackaged as a
desktop, but it’s very slick-looking nonetheless. The package weighs about 12 pounds
total and is expected to cost around $2,000 when it’s unveiled later this year
(including a Pentium III processor). You can upgrade the system via notebook-style PC card
slots as well as the company’s VersaBay slots, which can accept hard drives, floppy
drives, CD or DVD-ROM drives, ISDN adapters and more.
- Another very interesting new product to display at demo was
Qubit, which is made by a company of the same name. What it is is a cordless web access
device with a touch-sensitive color screen that connects to hub that, in turn, connects to
the Internet. So, imagine a web tablet that you can take anywhere you want around your
house and have touch-screen access to the Internet. Even better, the company hopes that
ISPs will offer Qubits for free as part of their service contracts. Cyrix actually showed
a demo of a very similar device at COMDEX, but there was a product concept, whereas Qubit
is supposed to be a real product later this year. The system is designed to work with a
base unit that can connect to anything from a 56K analog modem to something like a fast
DSL or cable modem connection. To use it, you simply touch the stylus to the screen and
browse around the web from wherever you happen to be located. Look for this to be a big
hit later this year.
- Compaq has announced their new entry into the palm-sized
computing category with their Aero line of Windows CE handhelds. Based on the new
color-enhanced version of the OS, the Aero features a color screen that’s apparently
44% larger than the Palm Pilot’s screen, offers 8 MB of memory, and a lithium ion
battery that’s supposed to offer up to 10 hours of battery life. In addition, like
other CE devices it includes an integrated voice recorder as well as four quick-launch
buttons you can use to quickly jump to the integrated applications, including the
calendar, contacts, to-do lists and so on. The device is expected to have a retail price
of around $450 and will be in stores on March 1.
- Toshiba latest notebook is the 2535 CDS, which is powered by
a 300 MHz Pentium MMX processor and features a 13" dual-scan color screen. Best of
all, this full size unit is expected to have a retail price of around $1,400. It includes
32 MB of RAM, a 4.3 GB drive, floppy and CD-ROM built in, plus a 56K PC Card modem.
- Fujitsu will be entering tiny mini sub-notebook market later
this month with the debut of their LifeBook B112, which weighs just over 2 ½ pounds and
is just over an inch thick. Expected to retail for around $1,600, the B112 features a 233
MHz Pentium MMX, 8.4" active matrix screen, 32 MB of RAM, 3.2 GB drive, 56K modem and
it’s bundled with an external floppy. You can also add an external CD-ROM, DVD-ROM
and LS-120 drives, with prices ranging from $130 to nearly $500 for these accessories.
- In other notebook news, Apple also chopped the prices of
several of their Powerbook G3 line. For example, their lowest cost system, which includes
a 14.1" active matrix screen, 233 MHz G3 processor, built-in CD-ROM and so on dropped
from $2,499 to $2,299. Their high-end machine, which includes a built-in DVD-ROM among
other features, slipped from $4,399 down to $3,699—a $700 cut.
- The latest survey by Dataquest showed that a full half of the
homes in the US now have PCs, up from about 43 or 44% about a year ago. Not surprisingly,
much of the credit is being given to the new generation of low-cost PCs.
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