[Am-info] NewsSource, October 30 2000 / 4 of 8 / MSN 'FREE' COMPUTER

[Paul Rickard]

      *Microsoft and eMachines, a company famous for its rock bottom 
prices and tendency to borrow ideas from competitors, have announced an 
agreement to give MSN subscribers a free computer. To get the $349 device 
for free, a customer only has to sign a contract and prepay for three 
years of MSN Internet Access at $21.95 a month, or $790.02 before taxes. 
This time, to keep customers from getting the computers and then 
cancelling their contracts [see Jan. 10 - [link removed ], Microsoft is 
giving away a computer that locks the customer into using MSN. The 
eMachines MSN Companion, an obvious imitation of Compaq's iPaq line, is a 
stripped down computer made from cheap hardware and a chip that isn't 
Intel-compatible. Windows CE and MSN are hard-wired into it, thus 
preventing rebate recipients from using a competing Internet service once 
they discover how horrid MSN Access is. The rebate promotions also don't 
mention that the computer package in question comes monitorless - an 
additional cost that makes the eMachines/MSN deal more expensive than 
buying a standard computer and separate Internet access would be. -|

            ALSO SEE:
      http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-3145169.html
      http://www.wininformant.com/display.asp?ID=2945



======== Paul Rickard, Editor of The Microsoft Boycott Campaign =======
--------------------------------[ Http://www.msboycott.com ]-----------

  "As Internet technology itself vaults into new areas, so too does the
   Microsoft monopoly and its tried-and-true bag of tricks."
       -US Senator Orrin Hatch, (R) Utah