Digital Equipment Corp will officially launch its Desktop Direct personal computer mail-order service in the US from Merrimack, New Hampshire on January 21, accompanied by slashed prices. The company describes the initiative as a multimillion dollar pushto start selling systems such as the 16MHz 80386SX-based DECstation 316sx, DECstation 320+, DECstation 320sx, 80486SX-based DECpc 433 Graphics Power Package, DECpc 433 Graphic Power Plus Package at prices of up to 50% off list. The 316sx, with 2Mb, a 52Mb hard drive, VGA colour monitor, keyboard, mouse, MS-DOS 5.0, and Windows 3.0, will sell for just $1,450, a 49% reduction on the list price. The DECpc 433 graphics box with 209Mb SCSI disk, colour monitor, keyboard, expansion box, mouse, MS-DOS and Windows will be $6,700, a 38% reduction. The new pricing will not apply for Santa Cruz Operation Inc Unix systems. Unix variations are a much more intense technical environment, a DEC spokesman told Microbytes Daily. DEC will concentrate on direct selling of machines with MS-DOS, Windows, or OS/2 installed as the operating environments. Resellers can also take advantage of the offers. DEC promises to deliver the machine within 48 hours of order, even for a custom configuration, and it comes with a one-year, no fine print warranty for on-site service and on-line help. The company will also be offering users a 30-day money-back guarantee. The machines are built for DEC by Tandy Corp and by Intel Corp, which makes the bigger ones and has more to gain by them becoming big sellers than Tandy, since it will make more by selling machines to DEC than chips to others.
