The Hindu Business Line : An Intel computer for less than Rs 7,000

A brand new Intel computer for Rs 6,995. Sounds like a tall promise? But Hyderabad-based Big Apple Manufacturing has sold about 1,300 such computers priced at Rs 6,995 in about nine months.

The USP of this computer is that all the hardware features are built into the monitor. The 14-inch colour monitor contains the following features - a Celeron300 microprocessor (equivalent to a low-end Pentium II microprocessor), 810E motherboard, 1GHz processing speed, 64 MB RAM, 10GB hard disk drive, a 56 Kbps Modem with LAN card, sound card and in-built stereo speakers with mike (sensitive up to 20 feet) and three USB ports. It comes with a keyboard that has a touch-pad mouse (like the one on laptops). Along with this package, comes a free Intel phone for Internet communication that can be interfaced with a web camera. Big Apple's computer also comes with a one-year warranty.

All this occupies about 1.5 sq ft of space - similar to a laptop. Designed specifically for BPOs and Internet browsing centres where space is a constraint, these computers have also found a market in schools and hotels. According to Mr Venkata Seshadri, Branch Manager at Big Apple's Chennai office, the demand has grown this year and about 20 schools have bought these computers in bulk. He declined to name the schools or the number of computers they bought but said that discounts were available for bulk purchases.

What is the secret behind the price? In 2000-01, Intel manufactured about two lakh Celeron300 chips, specifically, to cater to the call centre boom. About 20,000 such chips remained unsold and were later purchased by companies such as Big Apple, said Mr Seshadri.

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