...bundled in a two year 3.5G online service contract. ASUSTek are still working to change the PC landscape!
Last week we noted in Bundling Netbooks with Telecom Offerings how both ACER and ASUSTek are negotiating with telecoms to bundle free netbooks with long term online contracts. Digitimes now provides more details about these contracts. Digitimes writes:
Asustek Computer is cooperating with Orange to push out a free Eee PC bundle in the UK market, according to the company.
Asustek is offering its Eee PC 900, which features a Celeron M processor, 8.9-inch panel, 16GB hard drive and Windows XP operating system, in the bundle deal. The deal requires a two-year 3.5G online services contract with Orange, which will cost an average of £25 (US$46.71) per month.
The bundle deal should help ease Asustek's Eee PC 900 inventory pressure.
First thing to note is how ASUSTek are innovating in the way they sell these netbooks. Although they still sell the netbooks directly into the channel, they are also using the netbooks as a value-added component of a telecom deal. This approach to selling is completely different to the normal way of selling PCs and shows how ASUSTek are positioning the product. The product is being positioned as a mobile internet device (MID) and not as a PC. Of course, there are fears these devices may cannibalize notebooks but by positioning them as MID they are trying to put them into their stand alone market segment or develop them as an extension of their smart phone offerings.
Although bundling computers with internet contracts is innovative, the selling strategy will not be new to ASUSTek or ACER. They have, afterall, been selling their smartphones into this channel for a while now and may therefore leverage the contacts they have made in the sales of the smartphones for the sales of the netbooks.
The netbook revolution may have a long way to go before it runs out of steam.
Digitimes: Asustek works with Orange to release free netbook bundle in the UK
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