Dell announces cheap desktop for China

While it's never going to compete on price with the ultra-cheap, homegrown $203 desktop we saw late last year, Dell's new 2,600 yuan ($335) entry into the Chinese PC market certainly has a chance to make a few waves in a country where the average machine costs almost twice that. Reports thus far are pretty light on the specs (unnamed Intel CPU, up to 512MB of RAM and 80GB of storage, XP Home Edition), but obviously the real story here is not some five-year-old tech but the fact that Dell is making aggressive moves against entrenched players Lenovo and Founder, with the former manufacturer claiming over a third of the market at present. Still, Dell is already number three in China, and assuming that consumers have forgotten about that CPU switcheroo mini-scandal from last summer, it looks like the battle will be heating up once again to see which company can be the first to offer its hardware completely free.

Read - Reuters
Read - BBC

[tiuk @ Mar 21st 2007 1:41PM]

Awesome accompanying image.

[joseph siegel @ Mar 21st 2007 2:44PM]

I never understood the significance of when a company announces a cheap $200 computer or laptop, with specs like 750mhz, 40gb, 256mb, ram etc. i can go on ebay right now and get a pc or laptop with those specs or better for less, so what is the big deal?

[Eric Chiu @ Mar 21st 2007 3:59PM]

No. You are wrong.

A $200 new computer is fully supported with warranty.

Don't you see these low spec computers are low value, it actually do a great deal for many many of the users out there (certainly not engadget readers). I'm actually writing my research paper on this. A Windows 2000 can do 95% of the tasks you do day-to-day on an Vista PC. It certainly can't let you play WOW, nor 1080p HDTV, but it can browse internet, send email, voice chat, run MS or OpenOffice and even bit torrent -- and these are the jobs most people do...

But please, screw the MIT $100 then $150 now $200 OLPC programme, i'm going to make my own $200 laptop brand new loaded with Ubuntu. hahahahah

[Motorola 3G Victim @ Mar 21st 2007 3:58PM]

Is it true that the real price break through on this new desk top is Dell pre-installing spy ware for $$$ from China Central Gov to help catch political dissidents?

[Tracert @ Mar 21st 2007 5:32PM]

Is it true that the real price break through on this new desk top is Dell pre-installing spy ware for $$$ from China Central Gov to help catch political dissidents?

This seems pretty unlikely (and also ridiculous). Although technologically feasible, it is not in Dell's interest to pursue that kind of business, mainly because the consumer backlash here at home would be enormous if knowledge of a deal like that came to light. Companies pander to the Chinese government because they have to, not because they really want to.

Dell has had it pretty rough these last few quarters, and falling behind HP in market share is embarrassing. Now that Michael Dell is back as CEO, he's for sure going to play rough in order to reestablish supremacy, which definitely means emerging markets. Challenging Lenovo is tough, but if they can make themselves a substantial market in China they will be well on their way to turning their stock price back around.

[Paul @ Mar 21st 2007 5:33PM]

geh, sorry about the formatting. Top paragraph is meant to respond to Motorola 3G Victim.

[Micah @ Mar 21st 2007 8:40PM]

Cheap desktop for $335? That's hardly a bargain considering the cheapest PC on Dell.com is $359. They should be able to lower it more than that.

[ZephyrOmega @ Mar 21st 2007 10:52PM]

Not really, considering that the prices for processors and the operating system deals Dell has. Even the major Chinese computer companies can't develop cheap knock-offs of processors (just look at the processor scandal), nor could they sell a box without Windows, so the Chinese really have do have to pay roughly the same price for computers as we do.

Unless they actually do manage to develop their own advanced computer hardware...

[Jonathan @ Mar 22nd 2007 12:21AM]

I wish I could get a computer from Dell in the US running XP.

[mattclarkie @ Mar 22nd 2007 10:14AM]

I had an XP with 512mb when it was unusual to have as much as 256mb. It was terribly slow, but that was because it was a Time Computer (English/UK readers will understand that). I find that a descently parted 512mb will easily run XP as long as you don't push it too much. I mean in the UK manufacturers are selling Vista machines with 512mb and integrated 64mb graphics, for £400, that is a rip-off, I haven't been able to find a pre-fab UK computer running Vista Ultimate except a £2000 Toshiba lappy, we would be happy if Dell started to sell cheap PCs here. Come on Dell, do that, and silence your lies about "Free Double Memory".

[James @ Mar 22nd 2007 2:03PM]

I thought that Linux was growing in popularity in China, so I'm surprised Dell didn't knock a few bucks off by switching to a free OS. That said, how is a $300 Dell a "bargain" next to the $200-or-less-after-rebate eMachines we've been getting over here in the States all this time?

[Johan S @ Aug 9th 2007 6:13PM]

Err .. XP with only 512 MB of RAM?? One of my computers used to have that .. it was excruciatingly slow after some time. And yeah I defragged it regularly, didnt help much. I think Dell shouldn't sell any machines with only 512 MB because the under performance can only reflect badly on them.

[LDN @ Mar 21st 2007 7:03PM]

That's rubbish - Im on my 4 year old laptop now with XP and 256 RAM ~ and it's flawless.. you must have no idea how to operate and maintain a computer; that's all!

[theo @ Jun 19th 2007 9:10AM]

Same as LDN, I run 384MB, and my computer runs perfectly fine.

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