cheap laptop

 

Personal computer (laptop and desktop) prices may have crashed. The low price tags, however, can be misleading � especially for first-time buyers.

Consider this. All low-cost laptops and desktops come pre-loaded with a Linux OS or a DOS version (obsolete on desktops).

The installation of a legal Microsoft operating system (OS) and office suite (for word, excel, etc) will increase the price of the desktop or laptop by 20 to 35 per cent.

What's wrong with a free Linux OS and office suite like openoffice.org, one may ask? Linux is free but has no support unless one gets it installed from Red Hat or Novell (that charge for support and maintenance, since the OS is free).

This increases the cost. Besides, analysts aver, 95 per cent or more of the current 22 million users in India use Microsoft OS and Office on the desktop.

Of this, it is estimated, over 70 per cent of Microsoft OS, and over 90 per cent of Microsoft Office, is pirated. With Microsoft clamping on piracy, getting a legal OS becomes imperative.

"While the mid- and low-range PC market is growing, how much impact the introduction of low-cost PC/laptops has on the market is too early to predict. While the hardware players have done their bit of reducing cost, it is now up to the other players to come up with solutions that will make consumers adopt the technology," says Piyush Pushkal, Assistant Director, Research, IDC.

The cheapest laptop from HCL Infosystems [Get Quote] � 'MiLeap', for instance, comes for just Rs 13,990. It sports a flash drive, free Linux OS and a seven-inch screen.

The ACi Ethos 7 model (from Allied Computers International, Asia) for Rs 14,999, on the other hand, comes with DOS. The cost of the system increases substantially when you think of a larger screen and additional features.