AOL unveils a $299 PC deal

girlgeek · 12-04-2003

***Clue to Confucy: This has nothing to do with hackers, social engineering or Mitnick.

http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5113197.ht...ml?tag=nefd_top

By Steven Musil
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

America Online is offering a PC, monitor and color printer for $299 to subscribers who sign up for its Internet service for one year, the latest effort by the company to prop up its subscriber base.

The Internet service provider launched a Web site, 299pcdeal.com, to promote the offer.

The "new AOL Optimized PC" is built by Systemax, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based PC maker. The PCs include a 1.7GHz Intel Celeron, 256MB of RAM and a 40GB hard drive. They come preloaded with Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition and Sun Microsystem's StarOffice software.

An AOL representative was unavailable to comment late Wednesday.

The move follows AOL's announcement that it plans to launch a new discount Internet access service to combat the growing threat from both cheaper alternatives and speedier broadband offers. The stripped-down service is expected to launch in early 2004 for $9.95 a month and to offer fewer of the bells and whistles found on AOL's $23.90 a month service, according to a source close to the company.

For the past two quarters, AOL has watched the number of its core dial-up subscribers slip as members have defected to faster broadband services or to cheaper discount ISPs such as United Online 's NetZero and Juno.

In the last quarter, AOL lost 846,000 members, some of them to broadband or discount dial-up ISPs. The bulk of the lost members were people using AOL at discount prices who were no longer counted as full-paying members.

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12-04-2003	#1
girlgeek Members Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 266	***Clue to Confucy: This has nothing to do with hackers, social engineering or Mitnick. http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5113197.ht...ml?tag=nefd_top By Steven Musil Staff Writer, CNET News.com America Online is offering a PC, monitor and color printer for $299 to subscribers who sign up for its Internet service for one year, the latest effort by the company to prop up its subscriber base. The Internet service provider launched a Web site, 299pcdeal.com, to promote the offer. The "new AOL Optimized PC" is built by Systemax, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based PC maker. The PCs include a 1.7GHz Intel Celeron, 256MB of RAM and a 40GB hard drive. They come preloaded with Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition and Sun Microsystem's StarOffice software. An AOL representative was unavailable to comment late Wednesday. The move follows AOL's announcement that it plans to launch a new discount Internet access service to combat the growing threat from both cheaper alternatives and speedier broadband offers. The stripped-down service is expected to launch in early 2004 for $9.95 a month and to offer fewer of the bells and whistles found on AOL's $23.90 a month service, according to a source close to the company. For the past two quarters, AOL has watched the number of its core dial-up subscribers slip as members have defected to faster broadband services or to cheaper discount ISPs such as United Online 's NetZero and Juno. In the last quarter, AOL lost 846,000 members, some of them to broadband or discount dial-up ISPs. The bulk of the lost members were people using AOL at discount prices who were no longer counted as full-paying members.