Revolt of the Retailer at Robert Pogson

Want a laugh? Visit Walmart.com and look for a tablet PC…
“$10 – $20 (1)
$50 – $100 (14)
$100 – $150 (19)
$150 – $200 (15)
$200 – $250 (4)
$250 – $500 (34)
$500 – $750 (33)
$750 – $1,000 (4)
$1,500 – $2,000 (1)”

There are two or more price-bands and guess where M$’s offerings are? Yes. $1500-$2000. There is only one tablet offered with “7″ with “upgrade to “8″”. Yes, this is 2013, months after “8″ was released into the wild. Can we say “token offering” boys and girls?

This looks like Walmart getting revenge for the killing of the netbook. I am sure M$’s salesmen were very helpful in derailing Walmart from selling what people want to buy, small cheap computers. Now Walmart has a 7″ tablet for $60… Almost all of those tablets run Android/Linux 4.0 or in the high-priced band, iOS.

Netbooks? Walmart.com still lists them and the lowest priced one is a 7″ Android tablet for $60. The next lowest price is a 7″ notebook with “7″ starter for $178 reduced from $228 on clearance. The best seller is the $178 notebook but the next best is the Android tablet…

The best-selling notebook is a 14″ HP model at $288 with “8″ “on clearance”. The second best seller is that pesky $178 notebook with “7″ starter.

The best selling desktop is a “gaming” machine for $450. The next is a refurbished Dell for $228 on rollback with “7″. The lowest priced desktop runs Android…

$98 gets you a Kaser YF800-4G Net’sPC Desktop. That’s from Kaser, a young OEM selling Android/Linux tablets, notebooks and desktops. They push the fact that their diminuitive desktop running FLOSS can serve as a server as well as a desktop PC. Amazing.

Hardware specification

8GB Flash memory
1 gB RAM
802.11b/g/n WLAN
10/100Mb LAN
USB host port *4 ,Client
1 * HDMI support
SD card
Microphone. Earphone jack
AC/DC charger,, power LED Software features
Android 4.0 , Kloud inside
Gmail,Browser
media player.
Ebook reader
Information on demand
Self configuration
Google play is available
applications preloaded.

See that last one. Flexibility and a nice bundle. Perfect.

Expect M$ to have a grim next quarter with deferred revenue tapering off and new revenue almost nil. Expect the revolt of the retailers to continue. Expect GNU/Linux to grow on the decaying carcass of the Wintel PC market.

PS: There is a report that more tablets sold in UK in December than notebooks sold in October to December. Ouch! M$ is living on deferred revenue from OEMs and that isn’t going to last long at this rate.

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.

2 Responses to “Revolt of the Retailer”

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1 ssorbom Jan 30th, 2013 at 2:15 pm

“The best-selling notebook is a 14″ HP model at $288 with “8″ “on clearance”. The second best seller is that pesky $178 notebook with “7″ starter. The best selling desktop is a “gaming” machine for $450. The next is a refurbished Dell for $228 on rollback with “7″.”

Wait, I’m confused, how is this a victory for Android? It is good that retailers are selling Android, but from what you said, it looks like the best sellers still run Windows. Am I missing something?
2 Robert Pogson Jan 30th, 2013 at 3:05 pm

ssorbom wrote, “it looks like the best sellers still run Windows.”

ARM is selling several per Wintel PC. It’s about share and M$’s share is seriously shrinking. Why is a brand new PC with “8″ being sold at clearance prices?