PC World bounces back with laptop discounts

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 30 Aug 2007 at 18:22

PC Pro exclusive: PC World is to once again offer new Orange broadband customers large discounts on laptops - but it won't be repeating its free notebook offer for now.

As we reported two weeks ago, PC World suddenly pulled its free laptop offer less than a month after the promotion was launched.

PC World insists it was only ever going to give away a set amount of laptops. "The initial announcement said there would be tens of thousands of laptops available - once those had gone, we stopped the offer," says a PC World spokesman.

However, from August 31 the company will offer new Orange subscribers between £200-£330 off a selected range of laptops and desktops. Customers will now have to pay £180 for the cheapest laptop model, and £165 for the cheapest desktop, after the discount. It's a far cry from the free laptop or £350 discount on any PC World laptop that was being offered previously.

Then good news is the length of the Orange contract has been cut from two years to 18 months, and the PCs now come bundled with Norton 360 security software.

PC World and Orange are clearly experimenting with different pricing models, but the PC World spokesman insists the free laptop offer wasn't an expensive mistake for the companies and says there's a possibility the promotion will be repeated at a later date.