While the world remained focused on a Google Phone, the world’s leading search company may have slid in a Personal Computer, designed almost as a Google PC under our noses, in a deal with global retail leader Wal-Mart.
The PC that it has in 600 Wal-Mart stores and which it is also selling online comes with Linux loaded and inbuilt applications, some are on device and others as web services links, with what might be described as new age web 2.0 applications, including Google Docs, Gmail, Google Maps, and YouTube, but also with links and apps for Facebook, and a Wikipedia icon and some non-Web based apps, like Skype and Gimp.
It even comes with a ‘G’ in the name, supposedly because it uses less electricity than a Windows PC, so the G stands for green, and is manufactured by Taiwan’s Everex (it was a US company, but went bankrupt and was acquired by Taiwanese interests), one of a handful of PC makers that offers Green PCs, with Wal-Mart taking it to market at a delightful $199 for a monitor free configuration.
Green computing is an attempt to lower the carbon footprint of computing and focuses on thin client devices with a high degree of onboard power management, but it looks like the trick to getting them down in price is to offer software which only comes from free business models, such as Skype and Google. The machine uses a microprocessor from VIA Technologies, just 512MB of memory, an 80GB hard drive and a combination DVD drive and CD burner.
Wal-Mart is running the item as a test, which it will roll out to other stores if successful. If there was a laptop version my order would already be in.
The price for an equivalent Windows Vista device at Wal-Mart is $298 which gives you an idea of how much Microsoft and its partners charge for software.