The $200 tag: Holy Grail for PC pricing?

There must be something about the $200 price point that just about every computer manufacturer seems to be aiming for it. Who couldn't forget the $199 price tag that Asus so fabulously bragged at the launching of the Asus Eee PC last June at Computex Taiwan? More than the 2 lb weight and small form factor, it was the price that tickled the initial collective interest of techies and non-techies worldwide.

In fact, when Asus subsequently revised the price upwards a lot of negative comments appeared in the different on-line forums that have followed the company's development efforts. Asus' failed attempt at keeping the price under $200 however has not deterred other companies from trying to produce their own $200 model, albeit in different form factors and configuration.

Lenovo has since announced it will offer a $199 desktop in China, though I am not sure if that price already includes the monitor. According to TechGate, another Chinese company, Lemote Technology, has also announced a Linux-based $200 desktop that uses a home-made chip, the Godson II E. However, this does not include the monitor and keyboard. So I guess there are various ways to achieve the $200 mark.

In the U.S., Gizmodo has reported that Everex's Linux-based gPC is now available at Walmart for, guess what, $200. The gPC comes complete with monitor, ready to use, unlike an earlier Walmart $200 PC offering back in 2002, the Lindows-based monitor-less Microtel Sysmar710. I would not be surprised if there are other models that I am not aware of that are being offered at that price.

At any rate, somehow the $200 price seems to have such a significant psychological effect on buyers. At $199 the Asus Eee PC was described by not a few bloggers (me, included - I think) as "throwaway." It is as if we could bring ourselves to dropping a couple of $100 bills by the sidewalk just like that. But somehow it becomes a no brainer for us to justify buying something that we don't really need. Go figure.

Personally I don't understand the psychological aspect of it. All I know is that the $200 price point does work. The Asus Eee PC's light weight and scaled-down form factor also work, as seen by the rave reviews.

So that means, if Asus, or even some other company, can figure a way to sell something that looks and weighs like the Asus Eee PC, never mind the exact configuration as long as it can connect to the Internet wirelessly and reliably, and can run OpenOffice (or MS Office?) smoothly, at shall we say, $200, it will have a run-away hit. It also won't hurt to name it HG 200, I guess.