Event Summary
October 9, 2000
eMachines and Microsoft announced that eMachines expects to begin shipping an Internet appliance in October, 2000. This appliance, called the "MSN Companion", will - amazingly enough - use the Microsoft Network (MSN) as its Internet gateway/portal/service.
eMachines will price the Companion at $349 (without monitor), but customers will be eligible for a $400 rebate if they sign up for 36 months of MSN service.
Current competitors in the MSN-based appliance field include Compaq and Acer.
Market Impact
We see this as a continuation of Microsoft's attempt to accomplish a number of goals:
User Recommendations
This device is primarily for consumers, and is not business oriented. Although it may work well for Web-based computing (e.g., using an ASP), the lack of a hard drive makes it unsuitable as a corporate desktop replacement. (We are not ignoring the recent phenomenon of Web-based storage, but we feel it is currently impractical for most corporate environments.)
One mildly annoying aspect is that the monitor must be ordered separately (in contrast to most other appliances), adding another $100-$150 or so to the price tag. But even with this added cost, the price will still be lower than Compaq's IA-1 by $100-$150, so it looks like a decent deal to us.
Outside of the monitor and hard drive issues, we see this unit as a fairly standard product - neither a ground-breaker nor a dog - that should help expand the presence of Internet appliances in the home.