For decades, M$ and Intel have gotten away with hiding the price of a licence or a chip by bundling with vast majority of PCs sold retail or wholesale. In 2012 this huge burden has become unsustainable to OEMs who have to artificially inflate prices to hide the price of Wintel. With the move to ARM where Android/Linux and GNU/Linux are available at no extra charge and ARMed chips being cheap, it will be impossible to hide the price any longer. Consumers will see cheaper devices on retail shelves running */Linux and will wonder why they should pay for Wintel. This makes OEMs squirm as their tight margins become tighter with Wintel. In the coming year, will that other OS become just an option rather than the standard bundle?
see $85 Windows RT Licence, can they make it optional? (dual-booting free Android) – ARMdevices.net.
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You continually miss the reality in the things you blog about, Mr. Pogson. To suggest that product suppliers “hide” the price of a products individual components shows that you do not have even a glimmer of understanding of how products are marketed.
Smart phone, tablets, and even PCs are sold as complete products and they come with anything and everything necessary to function the way the manufacturer wanted them to function. The same is true even if the OS is Android and the CPU is ARM. Haven’t you noticed?
People will compare the features and functions of a device as well as its price to decide which to buy. Correctly or incorrectly, they evaluate the style and quality level of products that they may wish to use and decide on a “best deal” sort of purchase.
That is why most PC manufacturers do not supply Linux PCs in the retail stream. They know that their customers are going to reject them because they are not Macintosh or do not work with Windows programs. They do not care if the Linux PC is cheaper, it doesn’t fit their expectations of use.
Perhaps there are buyers to accept Linux in backward countries where there is less discretionary income to use for a purchase, but even there I think that people are more likely to buy nothing at all than to settle for some oddity such as a Linux computer.
That is from the product manufacturer’s point of view. From the component supplier’s side, the answer is a little different.
You have seen in the past where Microsoft and Intel both have made price accomodations to suit the realities of product markets for devices. The netbook had to have a $15 OS and Microsoft met that need. Intel, too, has kept constraints on their chips used in low end products. Both will continue to do so as long as there is some profits to be made in supplying such things.
Remember that software is a zero cost replication item, so as long as there is any money at all in the business, it costs Microsoft nothing to bend over and pick it up. Almost the same is true for Intel where the chips roll off of production equipment for mere pennies’ worth of raw materials and energy.
Clarence Moon wrote, ” PCs are sold as complete products and they come with anything and everything necessary to function the way the manufacturer wanted them to function.”
Nope. Salesmen often double the price with add-ons. They could just as easily offer choice of OS. I bought a truck once. I was offered dozens of options but only took one, power steering, for the little woman. I took delivery with 14 inch wheels and no bumper…
I’ve seen many examples of PCs sold with many choices, just not the bundled OS. That’s rare because M$ and “partners” want it that way.
Salesmen often double the price with add-ons
The wilds of Canada must be a truly remarkable place, Mr. Pogson, with next to no correlation with the rest of the world! There hasn’t been a computer salesman in the USA retail world since around 1987. Everything is in a sealed box and ready to load into your shopping cart. Take it or leave it.
If you want some information about a unit, welcome to Google (or, as I prefer, Bing) and an evening of searching through reviews that are mostly uninformative.
Can you still buy crackers and dill pickles directly from a shipping barrel where you shop? Just curious.
Clarence Moon wrote, “The wilds of Canada must be a truly remarkable place, Mr. Pogson, with next to no correlation with the rest of the world! There hasn’t been a computer salesman in the USA retail world since around 1987. “
OMG! M$ has been spending $billions for nothing then…
I have talked with real salesmen. They don’t usually install an OS, but they will have 20 models available with different OS, RAM/storage/performance combinations. I have had them open a box to see the manual and to try-before-buying. One of my favourites is hiring.
I have talked with real salesmen.
You say that to shore up your previous assertions, Mr. Pogson, but your image is that you are someone who would not be in any sort of listening mood. Is that really “talking” if you are not paying any attention and/or are not willing to accept the offered information?