The Zonbox by Zonbu is a positively tiny desktop computer that makes no sound, makes no pollution after carbon offsets, and will only set you back $99 the first month (more on that in a minute). It’s a fully loaded desktop computer running a Linux operating system and, like most Linux distributions these days, comes with almost all the software you’ll ever need. I know what you’re thinking but watch the demo first.

I’m fuzzy on who their market is though. Based on the price and the pre-loaded applications (office suite, music, photos, casual games) it seems to be aimed squarely at the low-end. But the device doesn’t have a hard drive. Instead, it uses a 4 GB flash card for short-term storage and stores data long-term on the internet (using Amazon’s S3 service). That means you need a very fast broadband connection to use it. This might be just the thing for people who don’t own a computer and want broadband internet access. But I don’t see many people trading in their current desktop for one of these. Maybe Zonbu has plans to let service providers sell these with DSL hookups?

Also, it’s not really $99. It’s $99 with a 2-year service plan. That’s right, like a cell phone. There are three plans which basically just give you varying amounts of internet storage space ranging from $12.95 to $19.95 per month. So it actually costs you between $409 and $577—about the same price as a low-end desktop but with much less horsepower. You can get the box by itself for $249 but it’s not going to be extremely useful with only 4 GB of storage space. With four USB ports you could easily add an external hard drive for a couple hundred dollars; but again, that puts you back into the low-end desktop price range. It does have a relatively low environmental impact even before you consider the somewhat shaky benefits of carbon offsets and that’s likely to appeal to some people.

All in all, it’s an interesting concept. Since I’ve already got a wireless and local ethernet, I’m tempted to pick one up sans service plan as a new computer for the kids. It’d be hard (maybe impossible) to beat the price and with no moving internal parts it’s probably fairly rugged. The kids are sharing a Shuttle SFF right now with an outrageously loud hard drive and they’re not going to need more than 4 GB of storage until they’re a little older. Yep, definitely tempted—but I’ll wait to read some reviews once they start shipping. I’m curious what the real-world performance will be like, especially for folks who will be syncing their data over the internet.

Comments

1. Josh R on 2007-05-25 21:56:52 wrote: Amazon’s S3 Service would be affordable if you could do it on your own with something like Jungledisk. 250 is still a bit steep though.

2. Christopher Frazier on 2007-05-28 11:30:13 wrote: I could see a 4GB PC being a great thing for a lot of families looking for a media-client for a home with a media server. As a desktop, though, it’s not compelling enough to jump on. Also - what’s the deal with the Matrix clip in the middle of the video? They need to get some marketing people on that.

3. Roger Hiles on 2007-06-08 15:22:27 wrote: To me it looks like they’re targeting the replacement pc market for people who already have a leftover keyboard, monitor & mouse from an older system. The managed software updates and free replacement policies seem well-suited for casual home users.