November 2nd, 2007
It's not a Google PC
Attention Wal-Mart shoppers!
The “Google PC” I described yesterday is not really a Google PC at all.
GOS, whose Linux distribution powers the new $199 box, is a separate company from Google. All Google is supplying is a toolbar, something many Windows PCs already have.
Oh, and it’s not a new PC, either. It is, as I suspected, virtually identical to the $298 Windows Vista machine Everex created for back to school sales.
I got all this straight from the horses’ mouths. Specifically, from Everex director of marketing Paul Kim and GOS Inc. CEO David Liu. They contacted me after seeing yesterday’s story and were kind enough to set me straight.
”We had been contemplating this since the beginning of the year,” said Kim. “We had been looking at various Ubuntu distributions, but we always felt that Ubuntu wasn’t quite what we needed. Then we met with David and the GOS team.”
“We were based in the FOSS community but we didn’t have a channel,” added Liu. “Everex, when they launched” the Vista unit “established they were interested in the box, but they didn’t have the people or tie-ins to the community. It was a really brave marriage. We shared the dream and we had the people.”
Kim said Microsoft people called him when the story of the GOS machine broke, and Everex expects to lose co-op revenue if the new machine cannibalizes its Windows PC revenues.
“Windows Vista has its own market, but it’s not on the $200 end. Those experiences aren’t good. Our Vista Basic units were selling well at $498, but it was the highest return rate ever, because the client was so heavy” and overwhelmed the hardware capabilities. To Kim, the message is Windows needs the power of a premium machine.
Because this machine is just like the earlier Windows Vista box, and will sell through the same Wal-Mart channel, Everex will get an oranges-to-oranges comparison of support costs, and return rates, over the next several months. This will be enormously helpful in future product planning, Kim said.
“The reason it looks as it does is it appeals to the Wal-Mart shopper,” Liu said. “Miniaturization doesn’t translate into a real computer. So this time they went with the conventional form factor.”
Future offerings may look different.
So there you have it. Desktop Linux is here. There are links to Google through the toolbar. We’re getting a real head-to-head market test of Windows vs. Linux on the low end of the desktop market.
May the best value win. And please be careful on Black Friday. We don’t want any Wal-Mart shoppers hurt.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 11/04/07
