Quote:
Wal-Mart unveils cut-price laptop under $500
Updated 09:09am (Mla time) Dec 21, 2004
Agence France-Presse
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NEW YORK, New York, United States of America -- The world's biggest retailer Wal- Mart is offering price-conscious US consumers the cheapest laptop on the market, priced at just 498 dollars, in a move described by some analysts as a "significant milestone."
The Balance notebook, armed with a 41.1-inch LCD screen, a 1.0 GHz processor, and 128 MB RAM of memory, comes equipped with the Linux-based operating system Linspire.
It hits the shelves loaded with a Microsoft-file compatible office suite and users can access the Internet with both a dial-up modem and broadband connections.
Its price tag undercuts rival laptops on the market by several hundred dollars, with others offering starting prices around 700 dollars.
The result of a joint initiative between Wal-Mart and Linspire, Inc., a Delaware-based corporation, Linspire said in a statement that the portable computer "is the lowest-priced laptop currently on the market to include a complete operating system and office suite."
"Comparable machines cost hundreds
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more even without an office suite or software included," it said.
"It is certainly interesting, without Windows you can more easily bring the price down. Five hundred dollars for a notebook, I think it's a significant milestone," said Charles Smulders, an analyst with Gartner, the technology research group.
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