Be on Status of Pre-load agreements with OEMs

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

Issue:  Which OEMs will pre-load the BeOS?

Apparently on December 16, 1998, Microsoft posted a web page which tells the
world which major OEMs will provide pre-loads of non-Microsoft operating
systems.  This is on microsoft.com at:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/trial/dec98/12-16response2.htm

The Microsoft web page raised a few eyebrows.  For example, despite MS's claim,
I don't know of anyone who has actually been able to buy Linux from Dell
pre-installed, unless one buys 50 PCs in a quarter (the offer Dell recently made
to CPT when we asked to buy a PC with Linux pre-installed).  People were also
surprised when Microsoft claimed Gateway would sell BeOS pre-installed. 

Slashdot.Org had a discussion on this.  One response was from  Michael A.
Alderete, the Product Marketing Manager for Be, Incorporated.  Mr. Alderete said
that MS's claim that that BeOS would be distributed pre-loaded on Gateway
computers was untrue, at this time.  MS has since corrected their web page.  
Here is Mr. Alderete's letter to Slashdot.Org. 


http://www.slashdot.org/articles/98/12/21/0210200.shtml


          The Be Line: No Bundle with Gateway (yet) 
          by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 21, @04:08PM 
          To set the record straight, this is, uh, not strictly factual
information about the BeOS. Be does not currently have any publicly announced
relationship with Gateway, nor could Microsoft know about any non-public
relationship, if there was one.

          Be has talked with a variety of hardware OEM, including Gateway and
many others, but at this time Hitachi is the only OEM with an actual agreement
with Be to ship the BeOS on their hardware. Period.

          We're continuing to talk to OEMs, and we're confident there will be
multiple bundling agreements signed in 1999. But there are no others at this
time.

          Another piece of non-factual information is in Microsoft's price
comparisons of the Windows 98 Upgrade to other operating systems, saying the
BeOS is $100 to upgrade:

          http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/10-7pricing.htm

               Compared with other desktop operating systems, Windows 98 is
clearly good value. The street price of a Windows 98 upgrade is currently $89,
compared with about $100 for Be's BeOS; $110 for the OS/2 Warp 4.0 upgrade; and
$430 for Sun's Solaris 2.6. Apple's Macintosh OS, the only operating system
available to Mac users, has a street price of about $99.

          The information about BeOS pricing is incorrect. It's $100 to purchase
the full OS ($70 if you buy it from BeDepot.com), and only $25 to upgrade a
licensed copy to the latest release.

          They make the same "mistake" about the Mac OS, too, I note, comparing
the retail price of the competitive product with the upgrade price for Windows.

          Thanks!

          ---
          Michael A. Alderete
          Product Marketing Manager
          Be, Incorporated
-