ONE of the world's largest makers of personal computers, Packard Bell, will join forces with Hong Kong's Asia On-Line in an attempt to enlarge both its own sales and use of the of Internet.
In the increasingly competitive market both for on-line services and for PCs many vendors are looking for something unusual or extra to give to their customers in order to attract more.
One way of doing this is to offer packages for the Internet, a service many new computer owners are very keen to have. The Internet, and especially the World-Wide Web, are popular but can present some problems for the rank beginner.
The latest line of multimedia PCs that Packard Bell will launch will be bundled with a new Internet solution package. Asia On-Line will offer, exclusively for Packard Bell, a free subscription of EasyNet Installer as well as eight hours of free access time. The package contains all of the standard Internet features such as E-mail, SLIP, PPP, Telnet, FTP, news readers, as well as audio World-Wide Web access.
The EasyNet software will come pre-loaded on every Packard Bell machine so that all potential installation problems will be avoided.
Also included with the package is a self-training programme which is also aimed at the novice to the Internet and is supposed to help the beginner through 'learning by doing'.