Online electronics retailer Kogan Technologies will begin manufacturing and selling netbooks, cheaper less-powerful versions of laptops, in an attempt to capitalise on the lower end of the hardware market.
The retailer has also used its site to gather comments and suggestions from customers on what features should be included in the new products.
The “Kogan Agora” netbooks are due to be shipped on 10 April, but the company will be taking pre-orders through its site in the next few weeks. Founder Ruslan Kogan hopes the devices can be shipped by the end of this month to over-deliver on the company’s promises.
Kogan has suffered setbacks in the last few months. It was due to release Australia’s first phone running on Google’s Android operating system in January but pushed the release date back several months due to what it calls “inter-operability issues”.
The Agora netbooks will sell in two models. The cheaper version will sell for $499 and come with an Intel processor, 160GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, three USB ports, ethernet capability, a built-in webcamera, wireless capability and a four-in-one digital card reader.
The second model, the Kogan Agora Netbook Pro, will have the same features but will come with 2GB of RAM, an optional Bluetooth dongle and will sell for $549. Both models will come with a 10.1-inch LCD screen.
Kogan says the decision to manufacture a netbook was the result of watching where the computer industry was heading.
“We’re always monitoring the consumer electronics industry. A netbook is a great concept because it’s halfway between a smartphone and having a full size laptop. We did some research and saw the netbook was one of the fastest growing search trends on the internet.”
The new device is also the result of crowdsourcing. Kogan used its website to gather comments from users about what should and shouldn’t be included in the Agora devices.
“We said, ‘hang on, let’s just ask people what they want’, and that contributed to a lot of features in the netbook design such as the three USB ports and a 10-inch screen.”
The company has also shaved money off the price tag by using a Linux-based operating system, which is open-source and completely free. The gOS operating system comes with a suite of free applications such as Google’s Picasa, Google Docs and OpenOffice.
The retailer will only ship the Agora netbooks with the gOS software, but will give customers instructions on how to install other operating systems such as Windows.
“It contributed to a lower price and we’ve chosen one that’s very user-friendly. People traditionally have been scared of Linux because it sounds techy, but it’s very easy to use, any program can be installed very easily. It’s a great OS and it’ll make people less scared.
“And my view on open-source is that at this given moment, there’s more people working on Linux than Microsoft and Apple has on their entire payroll. It’s faster and stable and we’re happy to see people are willing to give it a go.”
As for the company’s delayed Google phone, Kogan says plans are still underway.
“We’re working on the redesign at the moment. We couldn’t give a more detailed date, but this year sometime, definitely. As soon as the external factors align and we can launch it, we will.”
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Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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