[cc100]

What do you think of this?

www.metronomy.com

[cc100]

ne 1 doing this?

[dinallt]

Not trying myself.

There is article about it in The Independent online under the heading
"And now a message from our sponsors..." Which I think is worth a read.

Article Here

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And now a message from our sponsors...
Want a free computer? Fine. There's just one condition: you agree to watch
three minutes of ads every hour. Stephen Pritchard reports on the offer that
sounds too good to be true
18 February 2004


Late last year, a start-up company, Metronomy, announced a scheme in which
it would lend an IBM computer to anyone who wants one. But there's a catch.
You have to be prepared to watch advertising on the computer's screen.

The PC is yours to use - on loan - for three years. There are no hidden
charges such as delivery fees, and no need to sign up for any other paid-for
services, such as a specific internet connection or a set of encyclopedias.
At the end of the period, you can either return the machine or start a new
loan period with a new one.

This is by no means the first time a company has offered "free" PCs. But
most previous deals have been linked to a specific internet connection or
phone contract. Tiny, the UK computer maker now owned by Time, tried a
"free" PC deal in 1999. The company offered a Pentium III computer, but no
monitor, to anyone who signed up with Tiny's telecom service and spent at
least £25 a month on calls. But the deal was quickly withdrawn, with Tiny
citing a lack of interest.

In the United States, one of the largest schemes, FreePC, failed because the
company signed up more people for free computers than its manufacturing
operations could cope with. The company ended up merging with PC maker
eMachines. In France, CiBox, a company that offered free PCs to anyone
prepared to sign up for their internet connection, had to withdraw its offer
in 1999 after shipping 25,000 computers. The company lost some FF20m
(£2.1m).

Unlike these deals, Metronomy's free computer is not tied to an internet
connection deal. But the company does require that anyone who signs up has
an internet connection, as the computer collects advertising data and sends
it back to Metronomy's servers once a month.

Metronomy's model is closest to FreePC's idea. John Thornhill, the company's
co-founder and chief executive. acknowledges the similarities, but claims
that he offers a better proposition to both advertisers and people who sign
up for the computers.

"FreePC took up a third of the screen with advertising in a continual
stream," he says. "That was too intrusive, and the quality of ads was just
that of banner adverts, which were much less attractive to advertisers."

If you sign up with Metronomy, you agree to watch up to three minutes of
advertising for every hour you use the computer - and the advertising will
take over the full screen.

Metronomy says it will typically show one-minute ad breaks every 20 minutes.
Anyone using the computer can delay the commercials for up to five minutes,
but unlike an online "pop-up" ad, there is no simple way to block it
altogether. The computer itself is modestly specified. A similar computer
from Dell or HP's current mail-order flier costs under £400, with VAT and
delivery.

Anyone signing up for a Metronomy computer will not be able to carry out
hardware upgrades that mean opening up the box, so adding memory, video
cards or hard drives is not an option. "We are not going for users who want
to add lots of memory or video cards," Thornhill says. "This is for the more
typical household."

Metronomy is targeting three groups of users: existing computer owners who
want to upgrade, families looking for a second household computer, and
people who want to go on line but are put off by the cost.

The company claims that almost 100,000 people have registered for the PC
offer either online or by phone. Metronomy has an eventual target of two
million users but for the first phase - described as a "soft launch" -
Thornhill claims there will soon be a waiting list.

But will people fully understand the terms of the deal? The Consumers'
Association cautions that anyone who is interested needs to read the full
contract with care. "The issue is what that agreement contains," says a
spokeswoman. "It isn't safe to judge them [Metronomy] just on the terms and
conditions that appear on the site."

The condition that could catch out people is the requirement to use the
computer for 30 hours a month. Metronomy points out that average households
use their computers for 44 hours, but 30 hours is still a relatively high
figure, especially for a new user.

You also have to agree to keep the computer for three years. After a 14-day
cooling-off period, sending it back means paying a penalty of £10 for each
remaining month of the contract - a maximum of £350 if you were to give up
after the first month. Unless you are on broadband, you have to load a
DVD-Rom with new ads on to the machine once a month.

The company will have to sell advertising space quickly to meet the cost of
the computers and its running costs. Sending out the DVDs alone could cost
£600,000 for the first 100,000 takers alone, assuming it costs 50p to make
and distribute a DVD (if broadband users download ads, this will cut the
initial costs). If Metronomy does gain its two million users, costs could
rise to £12m a year for the DVDs alone.

Recouping these costs will depend on how effective Metronomy's targeting
software is, and how many people respond to the advertising.

"The danger is that the people who are interested are not that attractive to
advertisers," said Paul Jackson, an analyst at the market research firm
Forrester. "People who are desperate enough [for a free PC] are not the
high-spending, technology literate, high-disposable income consumers. They
would be too alarmed by the ads."

And no doubt the computer-savvy will work out a way to bypass the system,
perhaps by running multiple versions of Windows XP, or even using the
computer as a media server in the background. And there are other questions:
whose responsibility will it be if the machine is infected by a virus? Would
a user be justified in erasing the disk?

Perhaps not many people would go so far, but if a significant proportion of
those with Metronomy PCs choose to put the kettle on rather than watch the
ads, the company could struggle.

network@independent.co.uk
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