Walmart Comparisons!
Charlie Ebert
Look at these two Walmart links carefully.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=1731325&
cat=86798&type=19&dept=3944&path=0%3A3944%3A3951%3A41937%3A86796%3A86798
1.6 Ghz Pentium 4 with 128 Mb of ram, 20 Gig ultra drive, modem and cdrom
NO OS. And price is $498.00
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=1811965&
cat=86797&type=1&dept=3944&path=0%3A3944%3A3951%3A41937%3A86796%3A86797
Here's the same thing with Windows XP and a 40 gig ultra drive for
$599.00
So for $101 dollars your getting a larger Hard drive which I'll value at
$20 and Windows XP for about $80.
Here's another.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=1881659&
cat=86797&type=1&dept=3944&path=0%3A3944%3A3951%3A41937%3A86796%3A86797
1.3 AMD Duron with 128M of ram, CDROM, 10/100 lan, modem, 40 gig ultra drive
and Windows XP for $499.00
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=1870928&
cat=86798&type=1&dept=3944&path=0%3A3944%3A3951%3A41937%3A86796%3A86798
Here's the NO OS version of the same computer
for $399.00.
This time XP costs $100.00
And here is the Lindows clone of the above NO OS machine.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=1870913&
cat=96356&type=1&dept=3944&path=0%3A3944%3A3951%3A41937%3A86796%3A96356
Exact same specs as NO OS machine except with Lindows and price
is same at $399.00
In fact looking across their entire product line of NO OS and
Lindow's machines, they are appearently charging nothing for Lindows.
Here's another comparison.
HP this time.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=1806146&
cat=56811&type=1&dept=3944&path=0%3A3944%3A3951%3A41937%3A56811
1.6Ghz Pentium 4 with 256M of ram, CD/RW, 40 gig ultra, Ethernet
and modem with XP installed and
* Software includes Windows XP Home Edition,
Microsoft Money 2002, Quicken 2002,
Microsoft Works 6.0,
Arcsoft My Photo Center,
Acrobat Reader 5.0, WinDVD,
HP RecordNow, and Jukebox 6.1
All for the amazing price of $849.00
Going back to Microtel we will find the most equivalent unit.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=1870920&
cat=96356&type=1&dept=3944&path=0%3A3944%3A3951%3A41937%3A86796%3A96356
Lindows, 1.8 Pentium 4, 256M ram, CD-RW, 40 Gig ultra, Ethernet, Modem
for $599.00
Then pop this into your head...
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=1806147&
cat=56811&type=1&dept=3944&path=0%3A3944%3A3951%3A41937%3A56811
Here's another HP 1.8 Ghz Pentium 4, 256M, 80 Gig HD!, CD/RW with DVD,
ethernet and Modem with XP and
* Software includes Windows XP Home Edition,
Microsoft Money 2002, Quicken 2002,
Microsoft Works 6.0, Arcsoft My Photo Center,
Acrobat Reader 5.0, WinDVD, HP RecordNow,
Pinnacle Studio version 7SE, and Jukebox 6.1
All for $898.00
********************
For just $40 more you get a faster CPU with DVD player
than the previous HP 1.6 ghz model I was comparing to.
HP's cost of building PC's is far less than Microtel's would
ever dream of being.
The difference between the HP with XP and the Microtel with Lindows
is a whopping $300 for an equivalent machine. This is the proof of
that.
I'm going to bet that HP can build a PC at cost for $150 less
than Microtel just because of their volume.
That means that the American consumer is paying
$400 to $450 dollars more for Windows equipped PC's if they bought
them from HP. That's how much more profit HP would make over
Microtel everytime they sell a PC.
That's practically 1/2 the asking price of the PC.
Comments?
Charlie
Erik Funkenbusch
> For just $40 more you get a faster CPU with DVD player
> than the previous HP 1.6 ghz model I was comparing to.
>
> HP's cost of building PC's is far less than Microtel's would
> ever dream of being.
>
> The difference between the HP with XP and the Microtel with Lindows
> is a whopping $300 for an equivalent machine. This is the proof of
> that.
>
> I'm going to bet that HP can build a PC at cost for $150 less
> than Microtel just because of their volume.
>
> That means that the American consumer is paying
> $400 to $450 dollars more for Windows equipped PC's if they bought
> them from HP. That's how much more profit HP would make over
> Microtel everytime they sell a PC.
>
> That's practically 1/2 the asking price of the PC.
>
> Comments?
While HP may be able to build the PC for less, HP has a lot more overhead
than Microtel does, so it all equals out. Further, who's to say that HP
isn't taking a larger margin than Microtel is for profit.
Do you really think MS is charging Microtel different prices for Windows
based on the speed of the processor? No. Microtel and Walmart are setting
their prices where they think they are competitve with their competition.
If there is more of a price difference, that just means Microtel and/or
walmart are making more profit.
Charlie Ebert
> Charlie Ebert wrote:
>> For just $40 more you get a faster CPU with DVD player
>> than the previous HP 1.6 ghz model I was comparing to.
>>
>> HP's cost of building PC's is far less than Microtel's would
>> ever dream of being.
>>
>> The difference between the HP with XP and the Microtel with Lindows
>> is a whopping $300 for an equivalent machine. This is the proof of
>> that.
>>
>> I'm going to bet that HP can build a PC at cost for $150 less
>> than Microtel just because of their volume.
>>
>> That means that the American consumer is paying
>> $400 to $450 dollars more for Windows equipped PC's if they bought
>> them from HP. That's how much more profit HP would make over
>> Microtel everytime they sell a PC.
>>
>> That's practically 1/2 the asking price of the PC.
>>
>> Comments?
>
> While HP may be able to build the PC for less, HP has a lot more overhead
> than Microtel does, so it all equals out. Further, who's to say that HP
> isn't taking a larger margin than Microtel is for profit.
>
I have to grant you that the actual cost of building the
PC's in the 1.8 ghz example would probably be around
$250 their cost which for HP leaves us with $650 in income
after hardware and labor expenses. And out of that $650
you deduct the cost of XP and all that extra software they
bundled, perhaps a $200 value.
> Do you really think MS is charging Microtel different prices for Windows
> based on the speed of the processor? No. Microtel and Walmart are setting
> their prices where they think they are competitve with their competition.
> If there is more of a price difference, that just means Microtel and/or
> walmart are making more profit.
>
I think that HP get's a different Windows XP distribution deal from
Microtel or Dell or Compaq or any of the others. I don't believe
that it's based on CPU size.
What I have proven is the American People are paying $400 to $450
more for top end machines which are equipped with Windows XP over
bare or Lindows equipped machines. That much is evident.
And that $400-450 we have identified is going mainly to HP.
Walmart has a specific markup for all their computer goods
which is based on their cost. And that markup is applied
to all their PC's. So that's a constant.
We can't tell how much Walmart makes from the sales of PC's
other than we can say it's a constant percentage of COGS.
When I identify an equivalent or exactly the same PC, I'm
refering to it's hardware components - NOT IT'S BRAND.
You will find NO Microtel at Walmart stores. Only HP
at mine. There had been Compaq but they have mysteriously
all disappeared.
Whether your buying a Dell, or Compaq or HP, it's obvious
the XP factor will cost you at least $300 more than
the Lindows equipped version.
If HP sold a bare machine, it would be about $450 for
the 1.8 ghz Pentium 4 model I've shown. And HP would
still make a $200 profit for every unit sold.
It is obvious that the cost of buying a Windows based
PC is a minimum of $300 more than buying a stripped
PC or a Lindows PC.
That's a BUNCH!
It seems to prove itself out mathematically that
1/2 the cost of your PC is attributed to Microsoft.
Charlie
chrisv
>1.6 Ghz Pentium 4 with 128 Mb of ram, 20 Gig ultra drive, modem and cdrom
>
>NO OS. And price is $498.00
>
>Comments?
Billy must be PISSED.
Erik Funkenbusch
That $450 includes other software, some of which MS doesn't make, such as
the Arcsoft software, Quicken, WinDVD, and HP's software costs them money to
build and maintain.
It's not like Works, Money, Quicken, etc.. are all free, now is it?
Charlie Ebert
If you look around Erik,,,, You can't buy a Sony or HP or Compaq which
isn't loaded with this useless shit.
Your paying $450 for useless shit.
When I ran Windows machines I never used any of it.
It's because it's usually not the FULL version of it.
So they encourage you to buy the FULL version of Quicken or Money
or whatever. You get FUCKED TWICE.
So I just never used it and we are paying probably $200 or $250,
not $450 for that.
The full $450 included the shellacking HP is giving it's customers
for NO benefit.
Charlie
General Protection Fault
What makes everyone think that the cost of Windows in the PC package is
the difference between the cost of manufacture/distribution and the retail
price? There's profit figured in.
If the difference between the two grows greater as the price of the machine
increases, it's likely because Wal-Mart thinks they can get away with a larger
profit margin on the system, not because Windows costs more for that
machine.
Duh.
Charlie Ebert
>
> What makes everyone think that the cost of Windows in the PC package is
> the difference between the cost of manufacture/distribution and the retail
> price? There's profit figured in.
>
> If the difference between the two grows greater as the price of the machine
> increases, it's likely because Wal-Mart thinks they can get away with a larger
> profit margin on the system, not because Windows costs more for that
> machine.
>
> Duh.
Microtel is selling them a lower cost machine plus their investment
in Lindows and Mandrake is just pennies per machine. A buck or two.
The problem with HP is they design all this software shit they stick
in Windows to run on their machine with the idea that this add's value
to the customer when in reality it makes their Windows equipped HP machine
seem sickly slow when compared to an idential processored Microtel machine
running the pentium compiled Mandrake.
And the American people are curious and like to play with things so
Linux offers them more opportunity to customize and play than Windows
does.
I have this feeling that Mandrake will end up being the people's choice
of OS's in the end.
Charlie