Factoids

Grupo Elektra is Latin America's leading specialty retailer. It's brands include; Elektra, Salinas y Rocha and Bodega de Remates. The Group operates almost 900 stores in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Peru.

"The PC Elektra can be purchased for 5999 pesos ($600USD), or on a rent-to-own program for 1,250 pesos ($12.50 USD) per week"
 

Groupo Elektra, Mexico's leading specialty retailer, has become the first retailer in Mexico's history to sell desktop Linux on retail shelves. Elektra has 864 stores throughout Latin America. To date, 27,000 units have been shipped to Elektra stores during the pre-launch period. Residents of Mexico can find their closest store location by www.lindows.com/elektrapc.

"Elektra has delivered a compelling offer to their customers," said Michael Robertson, chief executive officer of Lindows.com Inc. "More than 25,000 computers have already been shipped in preparation for expected demand for affordable, Linux-powered computers in countries such as Mexico."

Elektra sells the PC Elektra, a complete, affordable computer system pre-loaded with LindowsEspanol (www.lindows.com/espanol), at a price point accessible for record numbers of Mexican consumers. The PC Elektra can be purchased for 5999 pesos ($600USD), or on a rent-to-own program for 1,250 pesos ($12.50 USD) per week. Elektra, who offers financial services as well, makes every effort to put computers in homes all over Mexico by offering these different pricing structures. Elektra also recognizes that using Linux on the desktop saves hundreds of dollars for their customers as opposed to selling them Microsoft-bundled hardware.

The PC Elektra systems are specifically tailored for Spanish speakers. LindowsEspanol features all the capabilities of LindowsOS, translated into Spanish. Multimedia tutorials in Spanish are also included to highlight the basics of computing, since many Mexican residents may be experiencing their first PC with the PC Elektra.

"Once again, Grupo Elektra is enriching its formula by providing to Mexico's mass market technologically advanced computer equipment at affordable prices," said Javier Sarro, chief executive officer of Groupo Elektra.

In addition to being Internet-ready through Elektra's own ISP service, Todito, the computers also have an Intel Celeron 1.7 GHz processor, 40G hard drive, 256 MB RAM, speakers, keyboard, and a mouse. The PC Elektra package comes complete with a 15" monitor as well. Customers can start working on their projects right away as the operating system, LindowsEspanol, ships with an office productivity suite.

LindowsEspanol (www.lindows.com/espanol), offered by Lindows.com, is a robust and easy-to-use operating system created and designed for Spanish- speakers offering comprehensive compatibility with Microsoft Windows-based documents and services. Users can share, view and edit Microsoft Word documents (.doc files), Microsoft Excel spreadsheets (.xls files) and Microsoft PowerPoint presentation files (.ppt files) while keeping their original format to facilitate cross-platform compatibility.

LindowsEspanol easily integrates into a Microsoft Windows-dominated network and can share files, disks, and printers on the network using an intuitive control panel to configure. LindowsEspanol also comes with an Instant Messenger that allows users to chat with AOL's(R) AIM(R), Yahoo!(R) Messenger, MSN(R), ICQ(R), and others, all at the same time. LindowsEspanol has applications such as Mplayer, and RealPlayer, and more.