Lenovo takes aim at low end PC for China

CHINESE FIRM Lenovo will start selling low end PCs into mainland China in a bid to get a grip on its rural heartland, the Wall Street Journal said.

The barebone PCs will cost between $200 and $400 but use a TV set rather than a dedicated monitor.

But, as the Journal points out, even that's a bit pricey for rural China where the average salary amounts to less than $600 a year. In such conditions, villagers normally see other priorities as being rather ahead of running PCs.

The problem is getting the bill of materials (BOM) right and there are additional difficulties in distribution - a fact that also affects PC firms' desires to sell into the rural market in India. There are initiatives in India which attempt to share resources amongst villages, including PC kiosks. There, for example, many villages have access to TVs and it's feasible to link IT technology to these existing systems. µ

L'INQ
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See Also
Rural India to gain from high end think tank
Intel intros kiosk PCs to India