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IBM Markets Wares to Africa (Wall Street Journal)

[Posted September 23, 2009 by cook]

The Wall Street Journal reports that IBM is partnering with Canonical to sell Linux-based netbooks in Africa. "International Business Machines Corp. will try to sell a new package of low-priced computer desktop applications to companies and governments in Africa, challenging Microsoft Corp. and other rivals in the region. IBM, which has been pushing into developing markets like Africa and Asia as mature markets slow, said the package -- which includes basic programs like word processing and email -- would be made available to customers via remote "cloud computing" facilities, meaning users could access the programs from the Web. It would cost $10 per month per user, and can run on so-called netbook computers, or low-cost PCs priced around $300."
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Outrageous

Posted Sep 23, 2009 23:10 UTC (Wed) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link]

Why pay $10 per month when you can pay $0? What is IBM offering that is better than a prominent link to Google Docs on the desktop? Lotus Symphony? Come on.

IBM Markets Wares to Africa (Wall Street Journal)

Posted Sep 24, 2009 11:58 UTC (Thu) by nye (guest, #51576) [Link] (1 responses)

That sounds absurdly expensive even for the European/American market; for 'developing markets' it's downright insane. To put it into perspective, Google Apps (which, let's face it, is guaranteed to be far better), costs $50 per user per *year* - half as much.

Perhaps this has been misquoted?

(Also, if you can actually get netbooks for $300 in the US, I envy you)

IBM Markets Wares to Africa (Wall Street Journal)

Posted Oct 1, 2009 23:12 UTC (Thu) by sflintham (guest, #47422) [Link]

$300 is just under £190 at current exchange rates. Dell are selling the Mini 10v for £199 (and I bought mine for £179 a few weeks ago under a special £20 discount offer). So even in the UK $300 for a netbook is pretty realistic, and given how much of a rip-off everything is here I suspect (though haven't checked) that you can get a netbook for under $300 in the US...


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