PC Retail

Great. I've already seen demand for laptops drop, but this is getting ridiculous.

This is going to kill the paid for laptop market aside from those niches like gaming and creative.

I suppose it won't be long before O2 gets in on it too...

Guys....the market that these companys are focusing on is the cheap cheap cheap market. There is still a huge need for step up products. Would you customer be happy with a low end notebooks, with small mem and hdd. There is 100% a need for better spec notebooks and the comment about gaming is a real oppertunity also. The question is, if you want a low end box just to surf the web and want to sign up to 18months contract the go for it. If you want to anything but surf and dont want the lengthy contract commitment the speak to a reseller who can help.... like you.

I question how many people actually want anything more than to check emails, surf the net and write letters.

Let's face it. We've been over selling customers what they need for years. Anyone remember a time when all customers simply 'had' to pay �2,000 for a PC? And no, it wasn't just PC World and co playing that game... the indies did too.

Before these deals came around, around 80 per cent of all PC enquiries in my store were for units that would be used for checking mail, surfing the net and writing letters. Since these deals started appearing, I've had two people come in in the past two months, both walking out in a huff when I told them they couldn't get the 'free' laptop bundles in my store.

Let them all go and give the laptops away with Broadband contracts. I don�t see it as a problem; in fact I think it is great news, I hope they all start doing it and as far as I am concerned they can give pc�s away to  . The more hardware that is out there the more Repair work will come the way of the small independents like me. I have 2 retail outlets and we sell quite a bit of hardware, but a large part of our business is in the repairs and service side of it. And let�s face it thanks to good old Lime wire and other P2P we know there is always work out there cleaning up people machines that are full of viruses. I would rather have 4 or 5 repairs each day than 4 laptop sales that�s for sure 
We all know that selling hardware is ok but you need to have other tools in your bag and for us it is the repairs and setting up peoples B/Band and so on.
If you just think back a few months people were all worried that Dell selling to PC World and Tesco�s was going to be such a bad thing for us small guys�� it never worried me I just see it as a good thing. I can say that I have both a PC World and a Tesco�s within 5 miles of me and it has in fact had a good effect because I now get customers that have seen a system in Tesco�s and come to me and ask if we can supply it. When we ask why they all say the very same thing. If we have problems we want to have someone to talk to and get help. I have been selling Dell systems/Laptops for 4 � years now and I am confident that most people don�t look at the price they look at what service and if they trust the sales staff. I make it a rule in both our stores that we 1000% never oversell a customer� if I think they don�t really need a system with xx spec I will tell them and that�s what customers like.

Andy
( MKPC )

Andy you are entirely too sensible! What are you doing in the IT trade?
Seriously, the people that cry like the sky is falling every time they see a new route to market for the manufacturers should go back to peddling whatever else they used to peddle before they got "into computers"
And to Brett Stocks. Any time a customer walks into your store is an opportunity to sell them products or services. You should have told them of the pitfalls of contracting BB to get a "free" laptop and given them good advice and even directions to Carphone Warehouse if they still wanted to get a freebie. You would have earned a future customer no doubt when they needed service or accessories.