AOL Deutschland GmbH looks set to bring free PCs to its German subscribers before Christmas, according to reports. In an interview with German news web site Spiegel Online, Klaus Eierhoff, multimedia director at Bertelsmann AG, said: In a very short time AOL will bring to market an appropriate offer, a discounted or free PC. Bertelsmann is 50% owner of AOL Deutschland parent company AOL Europe, a joint venture with America Online Inc.
The offer follows similar moves in the US by AOL’s Compuserve professional brand. Subscribers are able to receive a free $400 eMachines Inc PC (monitor and peripherals not included) when they sign up for three years of the service at a cost of $21.95 per month ($790 in total). Details of the German offer are yet to emerge, but with a monthly subscription of about $5, it seems unlikely PCs could be offered to AOL users without unreasonably long-term contracts or minimum usage terms (the firm makes some money from dialup interconnection agreements). Because of this, a discount seems more likely.
T-Online, the market leading ISP run by Deutsche Telekom AG, said Friday it was not concerned by AOL’s move, and had no plans to follow suit. And with good reason, T-Online has 3.4 million subscribers in Germany, compared to AOL’s 900,000. In its attempt to steal some market share, AOL recently introduced a subscription package where users have unlimited access to its content, the first time it had done so in the country. Compared to its previous offering, this was a vast improvement, but the company still has to compete against subscription-free offerings.
The free PC offer seems unlikely to translate easily to the UK, AOL Europe’s other main market. Tiny Computers Ltd, a retail chain with its own virtual ISP, dropped its offer last month when it realized most customers were taking discounts on high-spec PCs rather than the dubious standalone box it was giving away. A spokesperson for AOL UK said Friday that the unit had no plans to offer a special PC deal in the UK.
