There are hundreds to choose from, but they are all the same!
Here is an example. This link http://www.aliexpress.com/product-gs/284166570-7inches-UMPC-Netbooks-Mini-Laptops-Laptops-Notebooks-Laptop-Computers-VIA-ARM-VT-8505-SSD-2GB-Memory-wholesalers.html takes you to the 7-inch mini-laptop in the photo, offered by Shenzhen Dongdai Industry Co., Ltd., in Shenzhen, China.
FINALLY ON THE STREET: The other photo shows one of the ubiquitous cheap-electronics stores in Manhattan. This is where it all typically starts. Best Buy and other store chains (even Walmart) hate these cheap laptops. The reason is, they are making so much money on selling laptops for 4-10 times as much. You will find these stores in downtown Chicago, Los Angeles, and other really big cities.
FREE SHIPPING FROM CHINA: Dongdai offers the laptop in the photo for $118, and they will pay the shipping cost from China to you.
The procedure is, (1) you go to the above site, (2) make your payment for $118 with your credit card to Alipay, a service of the well known Alibaba Chinese e-commerce site. You pay securely with your credit card without exposing your details. (3) Alipay holds your payment in escrow until your notebook is delivered. They forward your order to the seller / manufacturer, Dongdai. (4) Dongdai sends your computer. (5) You receive your computer and confirm delivery. (6) Alipay forwards the payment to Dongdai, the seller, after you get the product.
This service even provides a tracking number for you to track your order.
The laptop is like the other ARM computers we have been covering recently in posts like this: APPLE TABLET CLONE -- and Dozens of OTHER CHEAP PC'S .
There are literally thousands of sources in China for these ARM laptops, among which there are hundreds of manufacturers. There are even dozens of Chinese people in the US who have established online stores for cheap electronics in the United States.
WHO NEEDS BEST BUY? By now, I would expect laptops for $100 or close to it are available on the street in the US. They should be found in the many cheap-electronics storefronts in Midtown Manhattan, especially near Times Square. Soon these will be available in stores everywhere. Chicago, Los Angeles -- on the street in all the biggest cities.
However, don't look for these in the big chain stores. Again, who needs Best Buy, Microsoft, Fry's, or Geeks.com?
Wow, you weren't kidding. Pages and pages and pages of essentially the same laptop (128MB RAM, low-powered ARM or MIPS CPU, Windows CE) with many of them below $100 new (I saw one for 67 bucks plus shipping).
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame that all these manufacturers are loading Windows CE 6.0 on them, so that people will go to their favorite web sites only to discover the mobile version of IE doesn't work with many of them. Some of them go so far as to just say it ships with "Windows" and bury the CE in the technical specs. But realistically, Firefox wouldn't run in 128MB of RAM anyway.
Get up to around $140 and some of them seem to ship with XP. Not the total rejection of the Microsoft/Intel hegemony I'd like to see, but at least people would be able to use them.
Yes, caveat emptor certainly applies here, but there are some interesting opportunities here for consumers and entrepreneurs.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like we are in a strange new world here, as consumers in a consumerist society and world. We are about to be innundated in cheap electronics, which I looked for and favor, but I am sure I can't really comprehend it yet. Really sophisticated devices that are practically disposable change everything, or many things.
All of this is a big rip-off. Beware, Beware, Beware, Beware.
ReplyDeleteYou have all been warned so don't cry when you find out you have been ripped-off big time.
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ReplyDeleteThere is lot of articles on the web about this. But I like yours more, although i found one that’s more descriptive
ReplyDeleteLaptop Direct