December 13th, 2007
Wal-Mart PC was a sell-out
Our story about the Wal-Mart PC, backed by the Google Toolbar, was the 8th most popular story on this blog for 2008.
As I noted the next day, this was not a Google PC. It ran a version of Linux called GOS and the only googly thing about it was the toolbar. The hardware was identical to a system sold for Windows Vista just months before.
I speculated that the $198 PC might sell for even less than that on Black Friday, but the unit didn’t last as long as the Thanksgiving turkey. It was sold out by November 13. Only 10,000 were shipped.
What’s really important is what’s to come. Many of these boxes are still going to be sitting under Christmas trees. Support calls and returns have yet to be measured or compared against those for the identical Vista unit.
I’m holding my breath for Everex to conduct a full accounting, and the result won’t come in a press release. It will come in future products.
Will we next see an Everex Linux laptop, at Wal-Mart, priced near Negroponte’s XO unit, but scaled for the mass market? Might Everex use Google’s Android to design a handheld version? How fast will it push these units out the door?
Stay tuned. Boxing Day is going to be fun this year. And not just at the mall.
UPDATE: Engadget reports Everex will announce a $400 laptop with the GOS software, dubbed the Cloudbook at CES next month.
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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| 12/13/07
