14 DAY TRIAL // Dell is adding this holiday season to its direct selling model a select number of aging notebooks and desktops that will be made available through the low cost retailer Costco Wholesale.
Mike Maher, a company spokesman, said that Dell Dimension 4700 and Inspiron 2200 are now available for 899 USD each, at Certain Costco stores. Last year, similar configured systems were priced higher.
In the past, Costco resold on its website Dell systems, and also promoted the company's products, but now the existing relationship is expanding, customers being able to take Dell PCs right from Costco shelves.
Dell failed to reach its revenue targets for its last two operating periods, and the company blamed a weak performance in the US consumer market. Also, Dell avoided for a long time to use retail channels, but as times are changing, the worldwide leader in PC shipments draws back in 2005. In recent years, Dell's experience with retail channels conducted to a rise in sells, although the company remains on its position of direct PC selling over the phone and the Web.
The Dell Dimension 4700 has a Intel Pentium 4 540 processor, which doesn't supports 64 bit operating systems, 512 Mb of memory and a 160 GB hard drive. The Inspiron 2200 has a 15 inch standard display, while the market is moving towards widescreen displays.