Dell to bring pay-monthly subscriptions to PCs

Dell has once again asserted that it is fully committed to the PC market, with the revelation that the company intends to fire up a PC-as-a-Service offering before the end of 2017.

In other words, we’re talking about a scheme whereby computers aren’t bought outright with an upfront lump sum, but are instead ‘rented’ on a monthly subscription, with obvious benefits in terms of spreading the cost (and being able to upgrade machines in a much smoother and cost-effective manner, too).

Chief executive Michael Dell divulged these details in his keynote speech at Dell EMC World, which runs through to Thursday this week over in Las Vegas. He didn’t elaborate on the specifics, mind you, but simply said it would be a worldwide PC-as-a-Service program that would be coming this year, with more to be revealed later today.

Dell also noted that PCs are a vital aspect of the enterprise world, reaffirming what he said last year: that his company is looking to become an ‘enterprise solutions powerhouse’ covering all bases, end-to-end.

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Market shift

Rival manufacturer HP already offers PCs on a monthly subscription, and has done since last summer, when the firm launched its Device-as-a-Service scheme which covers not just PC infrastructure but other devices such as printers.

And also last summer, Microsoft kicked off its Surface-as-a-Service program, flogging its hybrid laptops on subscriptions to small businesses and enterprises alike, alongside software subscriptions such as Office 365.

Dell has previously said that as we move into the next decade, it expects 80% of global PC sales to be driven by three big manufacturers – and the company intends to be one of these.

Via: PC World

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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).