Would you pay for...?

[wtd]

Let's say I start a company designing and selling Windows notebooks. I offer 13.3", 15.4" and 17.1" notebooks with mainstream specs. Nothing to sneeze at, but nothing especially fancy either. Where I differentiate my products is that my online store is straightforward. I offer each product in only one place. There is no home/business schism. Pricing is set, with no fluctuations, aside from downward adjustments at the end of each product's 6 month lifecycle. Windows installations are clean: no trialware is offered.

And... I also charge $100-300 more than my competitors' similarly specced machines.

[Dan]

To me it would seem crazy to pay up to $300 more becues your site layout is cleaner and for the lucktory of you not installing trialware on my computer.

The notebook and computer business is rather comptive so i think you need a better business staragtey then that and would need to set your self apart more to justify spending the extra $300.

[Tony]

Throw in a copy of OS on a disk, offer a competent warranty program, and I'd consider... provided I was in a market for this particular OS on my machine

[Dan]

Tony @ 30th April 2009, 12:16 am wrote:

Throw in a copy of OS on a disk, offer a competent warranty program, and I'd consider... provided I was in a market for this particular OS on my machine

If it was a warranty program that went byeond what most other companys are giving (in terms of length and/or support level) and it was inlcuded in that extra $300 i would consider it too.


Also if i was able to pick a linux distro, and you selected hardware that was gaurinited to be comtable and got everything fully set up and working i would deftaly be willing to pay the extra.

For example if i could say i wanted a Gentoo notebook with a given set of specs and i would get a laptop totaly comptable with it, that would be well worth paying extra.

[rdrake]

If you didn't mention Windows then I'd swear you were talking about the Apple store.

[Zren]

What about an option to have pre-loaded software. I know clean installs are nice, but there are some programs that are kinda necessity in this day and age. So how about a list of checkboxes with like:

Adobe Acrobat
Java
Flash Player
Windows Live Suite (Messenger, Mail)
Mozilla Firefox
Opera
Chrome
Mozilla Thunderbird
...etc.

Also If you start selling Win7 notebooks:
[Checked automatically] Internet Explorer 8

You might also check to make sure the user is getting at least one browser.

[md]

Since you are only selling three models; and all are the same, you can very easily cut costs with customization. Depending on your administration and shipping overhead I think you could aim for $0-$100 more; which is a much more reasonable range.

That being said... it would to me entirely depend on the hardware and who I would be getting my windows tax back from.

[wtd]

The $100 to $300 range is there because of differing costs for each model.

It might be a $100 premium for an entry-level 13.3" notebook priced at $999. It would be a $300 premium for a $2000 17.1" notebook. As someone running a business I have to do this. The premium 17" notebook is a riskier offering. I am less likely to sell it. Thus I have to charge a higher premium for it to guard against the possibility that I don't sell my inventory fast enough, and then have to blow it out for substantially reduced prices when the new product is slated to arrive.

[wtd]

Tony @ Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:16 pm wrote:

Throw in a copy of OS on a disk, offer a competent warranty program, and I'd consider... provided I was in a market for this particular OS on my machine

Well, there was an implicit assumption in the original post: they are in all other ways equal, and you're going to buy from my company, or the competition.

[jernst]

If I'm buying a mainstream laptop I'd just walk into future shop and get the cheapest thing I can find as quick as possible. The extra 100-300 I save will be worth having to deal with 10 minutes of them trying to sell me warranties and all the rest. The only time I would buy a laptop off the net is if I bought another high end laptop, and thats not going to happen again soon since my last one died from a soup attack.

[Amailer]

For newbies offer an online support where you interactively build their system for them (since most people do not know how to pick what processor/ram and etc they need).

You are chatting with them, find out what they need, they see their computer config being setup live - thats unique and I think people will like it But completely different from what you were saying.

It should set you a "bit" apart since no one else (that I know off?) currently has this, and it makes it really easy for people to build their own computer (sort of), online.

[BigBear]

Zren @ Thu Apr 30, 2009 7:50 am wrote:

What about an option to have pre-loaded software. I know clean installs are nice, but there are some programs that are kinda necessity in this day and age. So how about a list of checkboxes with like:

Adobe Acrobat
Java
Flash Player
Windows Live Suite (Messenger, Mail)
Mozilla Firefox
Opera
Chrome
Mozilla Thunderbird
...etc.

Also If you start selling Win7 notebooks:
[Checked automatically] Internet Explorer 8

You might also check to make sure the user is getting at least one browser.

Adobe Acrobat - Foxit Reader (way faster)
Windows Live Suite (Messenger, Mail) - Pigdin and if you mean Windows essential (I think MS calls their photo manager etc) that is all useless most people use other software

And why three browsers?

[zero-impact]

jernst @ Thu Apr 30, 2009 12:09 pm wrote:

If I'm buying a mainstream laptop I'd just walk into future shop and get the cheapest thing I can find as quick as possible. The extra 100-300 I save will be worth having to deal with 10 minutes of them trying to sell me warranties and all the rest. The only time I would buy a laptop off the net is if I bought another high end laptop, and thats not going to happen again soon since my last one died from a soup attack.

I agree. I am looking at the system 76 laptops although..

[Dan]

Amailer @ 30th April 2009, 2:13 pm wrote:

For newbies offer an online support where you interactively build their system for them (since most people do not know how to pick what processor/ram and etc they need).

This is a great idea. I think alot of peoleop would pay to have this cusmtomzation help. I know i have help relavtives threw the process of buying a dell computer on there site as it has a bunch of customzation steps that a noraml person has no idea about.


However i think wtd's idea was to have a few standard models with no customization. The problem with this is it is what feature shop, best buy and other birck and mortor stores do and they do it for alot less and in person (as well as online).

[btiffin]

Polled no. But if you offered a GNU/Linux or other Open OS at $300 dollars LESS, I'd line up ... if it was time to buy.

I'd appreciate a retailer that had a clue, so maybe even $10 less, knowing full well that most of the $N saved on the Windows license went to said retailer's pocket.

Cheers