It’s not just a netbook, etc…
Almost two years after dipping its toe in the PC water by launching its own range of software, UK retail giant Marks & Spencer has launched an own-branded netbook.
The not very cryptically named MSNB-2009 ‘webbook' is a ten inch Intel Atom powered PC, manufactured by UK OEM Elonex, costing £279. This deal represents a good achievement for Elonex, which already has a decent UK retail presence, both for own-branded and white-label products, in chains like Asda and Next.
"M&S is one of the UK's most recognisable high street brands and was an unusual but very compelling partnership for Elonex," said Stuart Smith, Elonex chairman. "Consumers see laptops, and especially webbooks, as much more of a lifestyle purchase and so teaming up with the nation's best fashion brand was an unconventional but astute move. Nowadays people don't just look to computer stores to buy computers."
"M&S has seen a growing trend for smaller and more portable laptops, therefore we have created these fashion-inspired notebooks in bright pink, sultry black and navy blue to offer our customers a great value, high quality and stylish way of working whilst on the move," said M&S technology buyer, Steve Hughes.
We hope to update this piece shortly with full specs, which apparently represent M&S's optimization of the original proposal from Elonex.
UPDATE - 12:00, 18 December 2009: The specs are now added.