[ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu pre-installed computer prices

Eddie Bernard eddieb at gmail.com
Wed Mar 25 11:47:14 GMT 2009


2009/3/25 Rob Beard <rob at esdelle.co.uk>:
> On 25/03/2009 10:24, Jamie Bennett wrote:
>> Rob Beard wrote:
>>
>>>> I'm looking to offer a base unit, 2GHz dual core Celeron (E1400) with
>>>> 2GB DDR2 PC2-6400 RAM, and a 150GB SATA hdd. Graphics, sound and
>>>> ethernet are onboard. Like I said, I would install Ubuntu 8.10 (and,
>>>> of course, ubuntu 9.04 when it's released!) and run through the
>>>> update utility. I understand there are issues regarding selling a
>>>> Ubuntu PC with non-free applications pre-installed (e.g. medibuntu)
>>>> so I assume I will have to leave them off, but perhaps give advice
>>>> to those who need it.
>>>
>>> Going on that spec I'd say maybe £250 to £300 would be fairly
>>> reasonable (considering you'd need to make a bit of money on it).

I'd be delighted if I could get away with that; either way though it's
interesting you started the bidding, as it were, at a higher point
than I anticipated. Which is a good sign, hopefully.

>> Let be honest though. A slightly higher spec model (250gb disk) with Vista will
>> set you back £228.34 delivered (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159369) so without
>> the licence of Vista one would expect a slightly lower price. Also the Dell
>> offers that pop up now and again blow this price out of the water.

Do you think I might do better offering this machine with a 250GB
drive? Just wondering how much space a customer might need these
days...

You're right, of course. It's exactly that machine you have referred
to that makes me nervous about trying to sell an Ubuntu desktop (at my
suggested spec) at anything above £230.

> To give a comparison, I built a Phenom X4 system with 2GB Ram, 250GB
> hard drive (onboard video and sound) for about £200 all in buying bits
> from Aria.  I made about £15 on the system when I sold it on which
> really didn't cover the build and testing time I spent on it.

I think the market conditions are pretty difficult at the moment, too.
Understandably, perhaps, but then again I would have thought if
anything the lower end of the market would be attracting more
customers trying to get a cheap PC. Or maybe people just aren't buying
PCs at all right now. I know eBay is no great source of information on
this, but if you look at the completed listings in the desktop
section, you'll see dozens of PCs every day going unsold.

> There
> doesn't seem to be any margins on PCs these days unless you can either
> offer some added value (such as on-site support if you're selling PCs
> locally) or have the buying power to buy multiple components at cheap
> prices.

Yes, sadly... it's extremely difficult to compete without operating on
razor thin margins. But it is doable. I think the key is that if
you're making the same system again and again, you save time both on
building and testing, as you know if it worked the first and second
time, it's probably going to work on every subsequent iteration.
That's where I'm at at the moment - and if I can get the necessary
demand, I can place larger orders, and, fingers crossed, it would
escalate from there.

Cheers

Ed



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