The retail market is already a cutthroat business where few companies make a thin dime. That's a big change from the days when most folks were rookies and needed the help of high-tech priests to demystify the PC for them. What's more, big computer makers like IBM and Compaq made a killing separating their brands from the pack by playing up the supposedly superior quality of the components in their products. Fat and rich they may have become, but the Fat City era is over and thanks to certain cheeky rapscallions, the emergence of the cheap PC phenomenon has forced the major players to rethink the rules of the game. Companies can't depend on the ignorance of consumers to get away with charging them a couple of grand for a desktop.
Computers are just commodities and consumers know that.
In much the way phone companies run their businesses, they will supply the box for a minimal charge as well as Internet access. The inflection points that Intel's Andy Grove likes to lecture about indelibly mark changes in history. And so it is with the arrival of the cheap PC phenomenon. Folks like Dukker are true revolutionaries who are wreaking havoc with the ancien regime . Right on the money Charles.