[elearning] Acer Aspire One - Rudd money

[ken price]

Could it be that the Windows cost has been paid centrally in your State?

"The $23 million three year deal covers Microsoft product licensing
for 164,000 devices and accompanies a hardware refresh that begins in
2008."
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1582266183

Alternatively - I'm not sure what happens in Vic, but some states have
an annual per-device payment that schools pay. Over three years this
may well change the overall total cost of the two versions.

I'd be a bit surprised however if the central contract was to cover an
infinite number of devices - the Rudd initiative would, one assumes,
have increased the number of computers by an amount that may not have
been known at the time of contract negotiation.

kp


On Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 12:21 AM, Roland Gesthuizen
<rgesthuizen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Mark is right, this is very odd pricing. The ACER Aspire one WIndows XP
> version is priced at least $150 more on some of the overseas websites I
> checked. The hardware is diffent but not remarkably so. From what I could
> see, the CPU's are similar except the linux version comes with a more robust
> 8Gb flash memory drive with no moving parts and 512MB of RAM, the Windows
> version comes with 1Gb of RAM.
>      http://www.cnet.com.au/laptops/laptops/0,239035649,339290036,00.htm
>
> If WIndows XP costs $250, does this make the laptops only $60? Whilst users
> can still purchase a copy of WIndows XP from Harris Technology, perhaps Mark
> is right to spot a goldmine for Windows XP licence purchases. Something
> doesnt sit right and I am suspictious of what might be going on.
>      http://tinyurl.com/5m8xj8 (Buy XP at HP)
>
> I would hate to point the bone but if a seller is pricing the different
> units much higher than is reasonable or fair (price gouging) or if they are
> selling a product at very low price with the intent of driving competitors
> out of the market or to create a barrier to entry for new competitors
> (predatory pricing) then what they are doing is probably quite illegal under
> anti-trust laws.
>       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_gouging
>       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_pricing
>
> "He who pays the piper can call the tune". In any case, users can pick the
> cheaper laptop and still pick their own operating system, golly they can
> even downgrade fr. Good competition drives prices down, not market
> manipulation by an oligopolistic industry. We already have Linux running on
> our OLPC, eeePCs and library terminals. Not a big deal, it works.
>
> Regards Roland
>
> 2008/9/5 Donna Benjamin <donna at cc.com.au>
>>
>> On Fri, 2008-09-05 at 14:06 +1000, Mark Kelly wrote:
>> > I trust discussion of Rudd money is at least partially relevant to your
>> > eLearning plan, especially planning your implementation strategies.
>> >
>> > The panel UMPC from Acer is a cute thing - and cheap. You get lots of
>> > change from your Rudd $1000.
>> >
>> > We got one to play with and see whether it can stand running Win Vista -
>> > our standard platform in 2009.
>> >
>> > 6 hour battery life!  Not bad...
>> >
>> > Anyway, the interesting thing is the pricing:
>> > $313 ex with Windows XP.
>> > $469 ex with Linux.
>>
>> Ermmmm... are the specs on the machines the same?
>>
>> > Now isn't that really interesting - Linux is free, and Windows costs
>> > negative $156 dollars!
>> >
>> > I'm gonna buy 10,000 copies of Windows and make a fortune...
>>
>> --
>> Software Freedom Day 2008        http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/melb
>> A world wide celebration of
>> Free and Open Source Software      Melbourne event at The Hub at Docklands
>> and the community behind it.          11am - 4pm, Saturday 20 September
>>
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>
>
> --
> Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
> http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au
>
> "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
> the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
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-- 
Dr Ken Price MACS ACCE Professional Associate.
President, TASITE