Sun trials auctioning hardware

Online hardware sales may enter the sphere of the $US15,000+ server locally, but traditional distribution channels should not be affected, says IDC's John Blair.

Following Sun's placement last week of servers and motherboards on the California-based online auction site eBay, the company said it was considering a similar strategy in Asia Pacific.

But Sun officials said they would wait to see how successful the US eBay "test" was before implementing the strategy locally.

The vendor posted five workstations, 20 Unix servers and 11 JavaEngine motherboards on the auction site, valued between $US995 and $US40,000.

IDC consultant John Blair said, if implemented locally, Sun's direct sales strategy would not adversely affect the channel. He said distributors, resellers and retailers would benefit from the strategy because Sun outsourced all logistics.

"They (Sun) may put it up on the Web and sell it through the Web, but delivery would still be through the channel," he said.

"If that's the case, then the channel people aren't going to be upset. It's opening up spread of information about the product," he said.

It is believed that to date the Sun products priced below $US6,500 have received numerous offers, but that the $US15,500 Unix E250 server has received only one bid. The number of offers for the $US40,000 JavaEngine motherboard is not known.

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