In the U.S. IBM Global Financing is offering a twist on the low-cost PC concept: refurbished PCs. Although some businesses in that country are eyeing sub-US$1,000 PCs, a growing number of companies are buying refurbished PCs from IBM.
Selling refurbished PCs isn't a new idea, but IBM's refurbished-PC business -- driven by an increase in the number of older IBM PCs coming off leases -- has picked up among small and medium-size companies and international customers, according to Charles Walsh, director of global asset sales and remarketing at IBM Global Financing.
In addition to offering refurbished PCs complete with monitors, IBM offers components such as hard drives from the company's supply of older PCs to let buyers refurbish or assemble their own systems.
It's hard to compare a 2-year-old PC based on a 133MHz Pentium processor to a new PC with a Cyrix Corp. 333MHz MII processor built by a low-cost maker such as eMachines and priced at about Us$100 more. However, the buyers of IBM's refurbished PCs don't necessarily make the comparison based just on power and price, Walsh said.
"Some people like the fact that these machines are industrial-strength," he said.
A way to maintain a standard
Large companies may use refurbished PCs to maintain a standard PC model. One IBM customer, for example, bought a number of refurbished ThinkPad notebooks for new members of its sales force because it wanted them to have the same hardware as their colleagues, Walsh said.
A Midwest chemical company, which is in the last third of a three-year deployment, is buying refurbished ThinkPads that adhere to its corporate standard instead of buying new models.
"We want to keep our standards intact, and it doesn't make sense for us to buy a new unit for Us$3,000 to last for 12 months," said Don Piering, an IT manager at the company. "We've been pleased with the quality of the units." Piering has bought several hundred refurbished ThinkPads for US$700 to US$800 each, mostly to replace broken or stolen units.
IBM PCs based on 133MHz or 166MHz Pentiums and ThinkPads are fast sellers. IBM, for example, is offering a package of 10 refurbished 133MHz Pentium desktops for US$3,990 to education customers, Walsh said. Also available are slightly older desktop PCs using 75MHz, 90MHz and 100MHz Pentiums.
Customers can order these in custom configurations, but they are more often broken down for parts, such as memory, hard drives and network interface cards, Walsh said. IBM also offers refurbished-PC buyers financing and an option for service and support. IBM does not, however, re-lease refurbished hardware.
IBM Global Financing can be reached at www.financing.ibm.com.
