Hello,
I am looking for a good mini laptop with the new Atom processor but find the manufacturers using gimmicks to promote their products. First they announce a product launch by a certain date in order to apply the brakes on the rival products and still there is no mention in the news about the launch. Even during the initial unveiling of the product, they mention very low prices like 300 to 400 USD as the likely price and after the product is launched it is much above 600 USD. For the Indian buyer it is a whopping 10K above the previous rate.
Even the iphone 3G is sold at a much lower rate in the US and in India which is price sensitive it is priced too high, almost double. Are people in developing countries richer than those in developed ones?
On Tuesday 26 Aug 2008, Rony wrote:
in the news about the launch. Even during the initial unveiling of the product, they mention very low prices like 300 to 400 USD as the likely price and after the product is launched it is much above 600 USD. For the Indian buyer it is a whopping 10K above the previous rate.
I agree. I have seen the new ASUS eeePC with the Atom cpu on Lam. Rd. It is preloaded with XP Home ed. no option for Linux or FreeDOS. It is a whopping 31.5 (roughly USD 730)!!
Even the iphone 3G is sold at a much lower rate in the US and in India which is price sensitive it is priced too high, almost double.
The prices in the US are the lowest usually - pick any electronic category.
Are people in developing countries richer than those in developed ones?
IMO, it is all marketing. They may be addressing only the rich in the developing countries - who knows.
Arun Khan wrote:
On Tuesday 26 Aug 2008, Rony wrote:
in the news about the launch. Even during the initial unveiling of the product, they mention very low prices like 300 to 400 USD as the likely price and after the product is launched it is much above 600 USD. For the Indian buyer it is a whopping 10K above the previous rate.
I agree. I have seen the new ASUS eeePC with the Atom cpu on Lam. Rd. It is preloaded with XP Home ed. no option for Linux or FreeDOS. It is a whopping 31.5 (roughly USD 730)!!
Asus is the most expensive one. However at Croma I got to see only the older 7" one with 4 GB for 17k5 and the Acer Aspire One 9" for 23K. It looks nice, display size is just right for a 1.2 Kg lappy and speed is good too but it is overpriced and has only a VGA camera. One difference I noted in this model was that in the device manager ( Doze XP ) it showed 2 identical display cards which means that it should support dual displays unlike the older one which simply had a parallel connection coming out to the ext. vga port.
Dell was supposed to launch its Mini Inspiron on Aug 22nd but there is no news about that. It plans to have Doze as well as Ubuntu models with 8-12 GB SSD and 1.3 megapixel camera. Also a slot for some add on bluetooth card (BT) . BT is however easily possible with the cheap USB dongles. It is to be priced between 15K to 17K but looking at the other products it appears to be just another trick to attract customers.
The MSI Wind has gone with the wind. :-)
September to October appears to be the time when more of these babies will be launched.
On Wednesday 27 Aug 2008, Rony wrote:
September to October appears to be the time when more of these babies will be launched.
Most likely 4Q (hearsay) and hopefully the prices will also drop with more players in the market.
BTW, the ASUS 9" display comes with a Celeron cpu not Atom.
Arun Khan wrote:
On Wednesday 27 Aug 2008, Rony wrote:
September to October appears to be the time when more of these babies will be launched.
Most likely 4Q (hearsay) and hopefully the prices will also drop with more players in the market.
BTW, the ASUS 9" display comes with a Celeron cpu not Atom.
There are 2 different models. One is 900 with only Intel mentioned and the other is 901 with Intel Atom. If they are selling the Celeron one for 31K then its too bad.
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/asus-eee-pc-901/4507-3121_7-33108990.html?ta...
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/asus-eee-pc-900/4507-3121_7-33016827.html?ta...
On Tuesday 26 Aug 2008, Rony wrote:
[snip] Even the iphone 3G is sold at a much lower rate in the US and in India which is price sensitive it is priced too high, almost double. Are people in developing countries richer than those in developed ones?
The iphone costs $400 in the US as well as in India. In the US the telecom companies are subsidising the initial purchase and recovering their money (plus lots more) by locking you in for 2 years, so you can get it for an apparent price of $200. In India the telcos have decided not to subsidise, which is why the apparent cost is higher.
Regards,
-- Raju
Raj Mathur wrote:
On Tuesday 26 Aug 2008, Rony wrote:
[snip] Even the iphone 3G is sold at a much lower rate in the US and in India which is price sensitive it is priced too high, almost double. Are people in developing countries richer than those in developed ones?
The iphone costs $400 in the US as well as in India.
It is about $750 in India. The 8 GB model is approx. Rs. 32K. At $400 it would be approx. 17K.
In the US the telecom companies are subsidising the initial purchase and recovering their money (plus lots more) by locking you in for 2 years, so you can get it for an apparent price of $200. In India the telcos have decided not to subsidise, which is why the apparent cost is higher.
Rony wrote:
Raj Mathur wrote:
On Tuesday 26 Aug 2008, Rony wrote:
[snip] Even the iphone 3G is sold at a much lower rate in the US and in India which is price sensitive it is priced too high, almost double. Are people in developing countries richer than those in developed ones?
The iphone costs $400 in the US as well as in India.
It is about $750 in India. The 8 GB model is approx. Rs. 32K. At $400 it would be approx. 17K.
In the US the telecom companies are subsidising the initial purchase and recovering their money (plus lots more) by locking you in for 2 years, so you can get it for an apparent price of $200. In India the telcos have decided not to subsidise, which is why the apparent cost is higher.
The iphone sold in USA comes with a 2 year contract of US$ 100 per month. They will recover more than what they are subidising. In addition, call rates in USA are faaar higher than in india, same with data rates. I think in that case, the phones we are buying are cheaper if you look at TCO - Total cost of ownership.
Actually, its a question of skimming the market. They know that people will pay that much for the phone. I think later they will lower the price, 4 - 6 months down the line.
Nothing stops you from buying the iphone from Hira Panna at 17K, just you will have to remember to disable the auto update. My clients bought about 20 of them till now in fact, with direct delivery from USA by courier, duly cracked to be allowed to be used on all networks.
Regards Saswata
On 26-Aug-08, at 10:01 AM, Saswata Banerjee wrote:
Nothing stops you from buying the iphone from Hira Panna at 17K, just you will have to remember to disable the auto update. My clients bought about 20 of them till now in fact, with direct delivery from USA by courier, duly cracked to be allowed to be used on all networks.
so now we are freely discussing not only proprietary stuff but also piracy
Saswata Banerjee wrote:
Actually, its a question of skimming the market. They know that people will pay that much for the phone. I think later they will lower the price, 4 - 6 months down the line.
Nothing stops you from buying the iphone from Hira Panna at 17K, just you will have to remember to disable the auto update. My clients bought about 20 of them till now in fact, with direct delivery from USA by courier, duly cracked to be allowed to be used on all networks.
If it is available for 17K in the grey market, it only shows how the companies are milking the public at 36K.
On 26-Aug-08, at 11:48 PM, Rony wrote:
Nothing stops you from buying the iphone from Hira Panna at 17K, just you will have to remember to disable the auto update. My clients bought about 20 of them till now in fact, with direct delivery from USA by courier, duly cracked to be allowed to be used on all networks.
If it is available for 17K in the grey market, it only shows how the companies are milking the public at 36K.
Topic now changed to Really OT - ROT
On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 8:06 AM, Rony gnulinuxist@gmail.com wrote:
The iphone costs $400 in the US as well as in India.
It is about $750 in India. The 8 GB model is approx. Rs. 32K. At $400 it would be approx. 17K.
Even it is marked as OT, why we are discussing about iPhone and its pricing in LUG?
Btw, I have asked one of the Apple Retailer, they will start subsidy of iPhone with some private bank soon.
Btw, I have asked one of the Apple Retailer, they will start subsidy
of iPhone with some private bank soon.
Subsidy ? With a Bank ?
I don't understand this ... unless of course, the bank plans to launch an app on these "subsidised" phones, that will facilitate m-Banking and enable the bank to collect a cool pay per use charge :)
Its the import levies that kill ... and no bank, private or otherwise, can "subsidise" these levies ... They can just underwrite upto probably 20% of the current Distributor List P and then do a mark up 5% on this as values to the Distributor / Retailer per phone.
Warm Regards Sanjeev Sarma
On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 10:22 AM, Sanjeev Sarma sanjeevsarma@gmail.com wrote:
Btw, I have asked one of the Apple Retailer, they will start subsidy
of iPhone with some private bank soon.
Subsidy ? With a Bank ?
/s/Subsidy/EMI
On 26-Aug-08, at 10:14 AM, Kartik Mistry wrote:
Btw, I have asked one of the Apple Retailer, they will start subsidy of iPhone with some private bank soon.
and the relevance to this list is?
On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 10:14 AM, Kartik Mistry kartik.mistry@gmail.comwrote:
Btw, I have asked one of the Apple Retailer, they will start subsidy of iPhone with some private bank soon.
I think even you are talking about this ..this called ' i ' magic ;)
-- Cheers, Kartik Mistry | 0xD1028C8D | IRC: kart_ Homepage: people.debian.org/~kartik http://people.debian.org/%7Ekartik Blogs: {ftbfs,kartikm}.wordpress.com -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
On Tuesday 26 Aug 2008, mukesh yadav wrote:
On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 10:14 AM, Kartik Mistry
kartik.mistry@gmail.comwrote:
Btw, I have asked one of the Apple Retailer, they will start subsidy of iPhone with some private bank soon.
I think even you are talking about this ..this called ' i ' magic ;)
"i" magic? Must be the sort of magic that:
- Prevents you from running any free software on your phone
- Doesn't let you change the battery on your phone
- Makes a huge hole in your pocket through hidden costs that only become apparent after you've already made a hole in your pocket paying for the phone
- Continues to promote DRM
- Has enough bugs to start a complete ant farm
I think I'll pass :)
-- Raju
On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 5:05 PM, Raj Mathur raju@linux-delhi.org wrote:
On Tuesday 26 Aug 2008, mukesh yadav wrote:
On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 10:14 AM, Kartik Mistry
kartik.mistry@gmail.comwrote:
Btw, I have asked one of the Apple Retailer, they will start subsidy of iPhone with some private bank soon.
I think even you are talking about this ..this called ' i ' magic ;)
"i" magic? Must be the sort of magic that:
Prevents you from running any free software on your phone
Doesn't let you change the battery on your phone
Makes a huge hole in your pocket through hidden costs that only become
apparent after you've already made a hole in your pocket paying for the phone
Continues to promote DRM
Has enough bugs to start a complete ant farm
You forgot:
- takes from the community, but doesn't give back (BSD licenses, anyone?)
On 26-Aug-08, at 5:12 PM, Nishit Dave wrote:
You forgot:
- takes from the community, but doesn't give back (BSD licenses,
anyone?)
/me raises his hand - ever heard of apache, perl, python, postgresql, opendarwin, macports ...
On Tuesday 26 Aug 2008 00:13, Rony wrote:
Even the iphone 3G is sold at a much lower rate in the US
Save yourself a lot of crap. Buy the openmoko freerunner. Open hardware, open software - gpld. You are most unlikely to "ever" need anything else.
And btw all the hype - including the Qs outside shops - are managed. You get paid to stand there.
On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 12:04 PM, jtd jtd@mtnl.net.in wrote:
On Tuesday 26 Aug 2008 00:13, Rony wrote:
Even the iphone 3G is sold at a much lower rate in the US
Save yourself a lot of crap. Buy the openmoko freerunner. Open hardware, open software - gpld. You are most unlikely to "ever" need anything else.
And btw all the hype - including the Qs outside shops - are managed. You get paid to stand there.
Dude, I have put my money where my mouth is and bought the Freerunner. Since one month, I have been banging my head against various hard, unyielding surfaces trying to get it to work.
Once I am sure it will work without a glitch, without making me wait 30 minutes to get registered to the network, 3 mins more to open the dialer, and not let the battery die on me in 3 hours (not to mention the 10 mins it takes to boot up), I will open a service centre where I can customize people's FRs and make some money.
My daily use phone is a MotoRokr E6. Can you just imagine the usability difference between the two?
jtd wrote:
On Tuesday 26 Aug 2008 00:13, Rony wrote:
Even the iphone 3G is sold at a much lower rate in the US
Save yourself a lot of crap. Buy the openmoko freerunner. Open hardware, open software - gpld. You are most unlikely to "ever" need anything else.
I am not buying the iphone. It was quoted as an example of marketing gimmicks. I am looking for a mini laptop in the range of 15K to 17K with the new atom processor. Most of the manufacturers indicate this amount when the product is introduced but after the launch they show their true colours. Applying 'shendi' or 'chuna' on the public.
And btw all the hype - including the Qs outside shops - are managed. You get paid to stand there.
True. All hype. The phone has many locally used features missing.
-
Arun Khan -
jtd -
Kartik Mistry -
Kenneth Gonsalves -
mukesh yadav -
Nishit Dave -
Raj Mathur -
Rony -
Sanjeev Sarma -
Saswata Banerjee