Aldi rolls out its budget ‘Netbook’

German discount supermarket giant Aldi is taking on computer superstores by selling a low price Internet-ready computer through their branches.

Customers have been able to periodically buy computers at the stores since 1998 but this has relied on market surplus. The new agreement will see laptops manufactured specifically for sale by Aldi available from Thursday.

At just 399 euros, the Medion Akoya mini computer is around 100 euros cheaper than its nearest rival, the phenomenally successful Asus Eee pc. The Audi PCs will come ready loaded with the familiar Windows XP operating system due to the newer windows Vista requiring a higher performance than the computer can deliver.

It will come with an inbuilt wireless capability and is geared toward the lower income shoppers at the supermarket who might struggle to afford a conventional PC, most of which cost around 1,000 euros at a minimum.

Those buying the computers will have to cope with certain economies in order to obtain such a cheap laptop. The Medio Akoya has no CD and DVD drive and a limited internal memory.

The unexpected success of the super durable and user-friendly Eee pc has driven a number of manufacturers to develop their own version of the so called ‘Netbook’ with Hewlett Packard and Dell among the manufacturers racing to make money on a market Asus created.

— Dominic Hinde

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