Dell said on Friday it would start selling notebook computers at more than 580 Sam's Club outlets - a subsidiary of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. - for $899 and a Dimension desktop model for $829 starting next week, the first notebook model to debut is an AMD-based Inspiron.
The Inspiron 1501 notebooks will have Turion dual-core processors from Advanced Micro Devices, two gigabytes of memory and 120-gigabyte hard-disk drives, Dell spokesman David Frink said. They will feature Microsoft's Vista Home Premium operating system, he said.
Dell diverged from its direct-to-customer sales model last month for the first time after announcing they will start to sell desktop computers in more than 3,000 Wal-Mart stores across North America. This marks Dell's latest move to sell computers in retail chains.
Meanwhile, Wal-Mart announced prices for the two versions of the Dell Dimension E521 it will start selling June 10, $498 and $698; the only difference is the former does not include a display. The world's second-largest PC maker is slowly venturing into retail sales, with few models to choose from at the moment, probably testing their performance in the market. Dell said new deals with other retailers will be announced next month.