Micron unveils sub-$1,000 PC for feds

Micron Electronics Inc. unveiled the ClientPro Ct this week, a full-featured

desktop priced at less than $1,000 that the company expects to be a hot

item in the federal buying season.

"The key benefits are the sub-$1,000 price and the expandability [features]

of a mainstream desktop," said Jason Atkinson, director of marketing at

MicronPC.com, speaking at the Excellence in Government conference in Washington,

D.C. "Normally, you give up some expandability at that price, but our expectations

are that this will be one of our best-selling products through the federal

end-of-year [buying] cycle."

The ClientPro Ct features three PCI slots and four external drive bays housed

in a micro-tower chassis. It supports Intel Corp. Celeron or Pentium III

processors and is available immediately at www.micronpc.com.

The company, which recently climbed to the second position for computer

vendors on the General Services Administration schedule, also made the new

product available through its Subscription Computing program. For a monthly

fee, the program allows government IT managers to choose from a menu of

electronic services, hardware products and other peripherals.

"This is the final brick in the wall heading into our busiest time of year,"

Atkinson said. "Our notebook and desktop product lines are more solid than

they've ever been,

and our customer base is more and more loyal."