Tesco grabs at PC consumers

Grocery goliath wants a bigger slice of IT pie

Retail leviathan Tesco has announced a full scale assault on the consumer PC and notebook markets.

In a move that will have both independent specialists and high street retailers sobbing into their cut-price cornflakes, the supermarket is to triple its range to total around 20 offerings as of mid-June.

It's the first time Tesco will have a permanent computing section in its stores. In the past the firm just flogged one-off bulk shipments. Now it will bring its enormous buying power to bear long-term on makers like Acer, Toshiba, Samsung, eMachines and Gateway.

Tesco PC buyer Matt Roberts said: “This significant new range of PCs and notebooks offers affordable computing packages to suit all our customer needs, from first time buyers through to tech-savvy upgraders.”

Tesco's entry-level notebooks will come in under £400 for an Acer Travelmate, rising to £800 for a more powerful machine like the Samsung X11. They'll take on Dell with sub-£300 value desktops, and put pressure on the higher end of the market with £600 dual core machines.

The firm says a key part of its strategy is unbundling monitors. Roberts said: “Offering our monitor range separately, as opposed to part of a bundle offer, is our way of providing greater flexibility and choice for customers even if it means shaking up the current market. Some customers want to upgrade their PC but retain their existing monitor.”

The range will initially hit 50 Tesco Extra supersheds, where customers will be able to test out the models instore and pick up a selection of accessories such as memory, printers, and networking gear.®