Microsoft recently released the Windows 8.1 with Bing product. The point of "Windows 8.1 with Bing" is that it's regular Windows 8.1, but Microsoft further subsidizes/reduces the cost of the product for OEMs that leave Bing as the default search engine. The result of this is that it's used almost entirely on sub-$400 computers, and there has been a deluge of such
systems as of late.
As always, I think it's great we live in a time when computers of various types are so accessible. Android tablets are available very inexpensively, there are versions of the iPad available lower and lower in price, the MacBook Air has dropped in price recently, and there's now a whole cadre of Windows computers in various form factors available for less than $400.
These machines are interesting in a few ways. The first impression I get is that unlike last time this happened in 2008 with netbooks, the parts that are cheapest are 15-inch displays at a far more usable 1366x768 resolution. Although they're far from gaming powerhouses, the machines coming out in this price range today are also far better performers than the original netbooks, both because the Atom processors powering these devices are far better, and because Windows 8.1, Microsoft's current operating system is far better on resources than Vista, the current releases in 2008. Add four gigabytes of memory, a big-ish hard disk, and a few ports and they're perfectly serviceable computers for office tasks, Internet chores, remote access scenarios, etc.
The other interesting aspect of these machines is it's an admission that just because somebody's budget for a computer is $250, we shouldn't intentionally prevent them from being able to run regular programs or install Linux, by only giving them the choice of Android tablets, Chromebooks, and iPads.
I think an important aspect of these machines is it provides an option for somebody who wants a general purpose computer, and who perceives the only option to get one as going over to the Wal-Mart or Best Buy. It's frequently parroted around in tech circles that the best option for a new computer for people on an exceedingly tight budget is to buy an old, off-lease business notebook such as an IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad, Dell Latitude, or HP EliteBook, and install their own Windows license or a Linux/BSD distribution. Unfortunately, that presumes fairly heavily either a technical background (and this option is good for technically inclined people on a budget) or that anybody with such a low budget may have the desire and means to learn about such things.
I think the thing that's missing is an inexpensive way to get Office software. The closest Microsoft comes is the personal subscription to Office 365, which is $70/year for Office 365 on one computer. There is also the perpetually licensed Home & Student edition of Office, which is $140. Microsoft has tried to address this before. There was a limited-functionality release of Office 2010, called the "Starter" Edition, which included Word, Excel, and a powerPoint viewer. Windows RT computers include Office Home and Student, plus Outlook, and the smallest x86-based tablets now include a license to Office Home and Student. It strikes me as odd that tablets get this license, but that laptops based on similar System on a Chip processors don't.
There's always other software, and as one of Microsoft's own slides about the machines indicate, they view the fact you can install your own desktop software (such as MS Money Deluxe Sunset Edition) and Office 97) as an advantage to the $250 Windows computer as a product, compared (for example) to Chromebooks or Android tablets.
It will be interesting to see what gets done with the newest Atom platforms. So far, the Intel NUC and systems like it are where they show up most often. There's a pretty clear demcarcation between 15-inch Atom systems for consumers, priced at about $250, and 11-inch Atom system with Thinkpad and Latitude branding, priced at almost $500. Some more consumer-focused products will be launching in the near future, including a 11.6-inch system with a solid state disk.
Of course, there are other options for computers that have Office and/or are very portable. The Surface 2 starts at $450, and with the physical keyboard accessory, you're up to about $580 for a device which comes with perpetually licensed Office, if you care more about Outlook, Word, and a web browser than being able to choose which desktop applications you're using. People often forget about the Surface 2 as an "affordable" computer because you need to spend at least $550 on it in order to make it useful, but if you "need" Office, the price of a $250 laptop is actually going to be $390 for the laptop and a copy of Office Home and Student, or if you also want online storage and more of the Office programs, it'll be $320 after one year, $390 after the second year, and so on.
It depends on what you're doing, of course, but as generic Office and Web boxes, these $250 computers could easily be worth a look, both for people on an extremely tight budget, and people with a big powerful desktop that want something to bring to class or use on a vacation. I personally wish that some of the more attractive 11-inch systems and those from Lenovo and Dell weren't quite as expensive as they were, because $500 is a lot for something with a Celeron-branded Atom in it, even if that something is configurable and is faster than what I'm using today. Incidentally, it's a little more than $850 for a model with Windows 8.1 Pro, 8 gigabytes of memory and a 120 gigabyte SSD.
I likely won't be buying one, but it would be interesting to hear from somebody who did buy such a system what it's like. I'll be honest and admit I'm sorely tempted to, just to see if the World of Warcraft performance is any better than my current laptop, but that sort of undermines my ultimate need to buy a real desktop anyway.
At the end of the day, I think it's good that systems in this price range exist, for a variety of reasons. They're not really great systems, but neither is a $12,000 car an especially great vehicle or a $9 shaver a very effective grooming tool. These products have a niche, and it's interesting to see the cost of things continue to go down.