SmallBizResource Blog -- Retail

Best Buy "Professional Series" PCs Challenge Dell

Posted by Fredric Paul Friday, Aug 10, 2007, 09:23 PM ET

Everyone seems to think branding PCs for small business is a smart idea.

On the heels of Dell's recent announcement of the Vostro line of computers for companies with 1-25 employees, Best Buy is trying to muscle in on the action with its new "Professional Series" label. But small businesses should be wary, as "Professional Series" seems more like a label, not a product.

Vostro's claim to fame was eliminating crapware, those annoying product trials pre-installed on many consumer computers. (Dell calls it trialware, presumably so as not to offend the consumer buyers still stuck with it.) Dell also said it would dedicate 6,500 technical support reps to support the line. But physically, the machines were identical to the ones the company was already selling.

According to Antone Gonsalves at InformationWeek, though, Best Buy's "Professional Series" doesn't even promise that much. Basically, the program seems to involve labelling laptops, desktops networking equipment, storage hardware, printers, global positioning systems, and digital cameras HP, Lenovo, Iomega and others as "Professional Series" -- and then adding having dedicated staffers for business customes at all of the retailer's 863 stores across the country.

Whoo-hoo! How exciting is that? I know we'll all feel better if our new consumer-grade PC comes with a nice 'business" sticker on it.

Hardware | Retail | Retail