10 August 2007

Mr Dell Does the *In*decent Thing

I was wrong:

UK users will have to pay a premium for Dell's Linux PCs, despite Dell's claim to the contrary.

Customers who live in the UK will have to pay over one-third more than customers in the US for exactly the same machine, according to detailed analysis by ZDNet.co.uk.

The Linux PCs — the Inspiron 530n desktop and the Inspiron 6400n notebook — were launched on Wednesday. The 530n is available in both the UK and the US, but the price differs considerably.

Comparing identical specifications, US customers pay $619 (£305.10) for the 530n, while UK customers are forced to pay £416.61 — a premium of £111, or 36 percent. The comparison is based on a machine with a dual-core processor, 19" monitor, 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive. The same options for peripherals were chosen.

Why?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does the US price include sales tax and shipping?

Even if it does, I'm not really surprised by this. The cost of doing business in the UK is higher, and these costs are passed on to the customer.

Glyn Moody said...

Is it? I agree that the cost of doing business in, say, London, is pretty horrendous; but Dell is mail-order: it presumably is located somewhere relative cheap, with cheapish labour costs. If it isn't, then somebody should be fired....