IWG launches joint drive to drop PC costs

By RICHARD WOOD

Whakatane-based Internet World Group has teamed with PC supplier NetPC and ISP Iconz to try to lower the cost of computers.

It is using open source software and a community internet/intranet-style service similar to America Online that it is calling KiwiOnline.

To start with, IWG is putting together a deal for a $400 Linux-based PC with a $28 a month internet connection, including GST.

The complete "KOL" service is scheduled to go live in January and will include spam blocked email, discussion groups, auctions, instant messaging, classified advertising, job database, online shopping mall, and an e-credits system.

It works through a special piece of client software that can be used on any PC.

Chief executive Doug Bell said that the target was a free PC with a 36-month internet connection plan.

The aim was to give those at the low end of the social economic scale the same internet access as those at the top.

Bell said IWG was using a business model and system developed in California over the past seven years and called NetVillage.

He said participating advertisers provided rebates from purchases made online that went towards a consumer's weekly repayments.

The firm was also looking for "over-the-counter" sales rebates that could be applied to customer repayments as well.

Bell said IWG would sell advertising/sponsorship packages in a number of areas throughout the KOL system, from "featured" icons on the browser to rotating banners embedded in a number of the KiwiOnline "tools".

He hoped 50,000 New Zealanders would sign up for KOL, which will be free.

On the PC deal, Bell said: "We would like to get a few thousand over the next 12 months."

The company is in the process of setting up the website.

NetPC