Poor take-up forces Tiny to ditch PC offer

Tiny Computers has scrapped its 'free PC' deal due to lack of customer interest only a month after introducing the offer.

The much-hyped scheme was the UK's first free PC deal, but ended up a damp squib last week when it became clear that the public had rejected the free PCs' specification.

Sources within Tiny claimed only five per cent of those signing up to the deal were opting for the free PC: a Celeron 300MHz-based system with no monitor. Most chose the discounted Pentium III offer, which will continue.

A spokesman for Tiny said: "We have stopped the free PC deal for now. The numbers meant it didn't make sense to continue offering the free PC."

Tiny's call centre received more than 25,000 calls about the offer, which required customers to sign up to its TinyTelecom operation and guarantee payment of £25 a month for call charges for a period of one year.

The spokesman added: "This was not a short-term offer and we will relaunch it with a higher-specification PC. It was a good first step into the area and it attracted a lot of business for us."

A spokesman for Time Computers, which runs a similar scheme, said: "We are continuing with our operation. We have had a lot of interest."

Jeremy Davies, senior analyst at Context, said: "Money needs to be made from these deals. The free PC model may work very well in the US, but that market is very different from the UK. In the UK, the hook for making money has to be perfected. The model has a future once it has been refined."