Toshiba Unveils EasyBuy Plan

The vendor's new Tecra mobile business PCs, unveiled last week, will be the first products that go to market through Toshiba's new EasyBuy program, said Craig Marking, senior product marketing manager at the Irvine, Calif.-based Toshiba Digital Products Division.

Under the EasyBuy initiative, which Marking said has built-in "aggressive" margins for solution providers, the vendor is no longer publishing suggested list prices, instead letting the channel set the price. Also, he said, new notebook PCs under the EasyBuy initiative will no longer be available as a build-to-order product, but instead will be available only in a limited number of configurations with a limited amount of customization.

The new program has its plusses and minuses, said Zaher Khatib, vice president of sales at Coast to Coast Technology, an Irvine, Calif.-based solution provider. For instance, Khatib said he likes the fact that the channel will set prices for the new Tecra L2s. However, while some resellers may compare with competition, others may do cost plus 5 percent, or even 2 percent. "The online companies will probably set the list price," he said.

Khatib also said some customers will miss the customization, which has been available for most of Toshiba's Tecras. "Choice is probably better," he said. "But a lot of people say, 'I don't want to wait for customization, I want it now.' "

Marking said the EasyBuy program is starting with the new Tecra L2 notebooks, but he expects it to be rolled out to cover all new Toshiba business notebook PCs in the near future.

The Tecra L2-S022 is a Centrino-based model with an Intel Pentium M processor 7402, a 60-Gbyte hard drive, 512 Mbytes of DDR2 memory, and integrated Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG 802.11b/g wireless.

The Tecra L2-S011 has an Intel Celeron processor 3702, a 40-Gbyte hard drive, 256 Mbytes of DDR2 memory, and integrated Atheros 802.11b/g wireless.