Zonbu is selling a simplified, for $99 and a $12.95 monthly subscription charge. The company says the 15-watt PC can save up to $10 a month in electricity compared with a standard 200-watt PC.
The computer is the size of a cigar box and uses a low-power, Intel-compatible microprocessor. It comes with 4 gigabytes of flash memory instead of a disk drive. It also lacks a fan, another big energy user. By eliminating fans and hard drives, the device is completely silent.
The Zonbu PC uses a Gentoo version of the Linux operating system and will come with a range of software applications such as the Mozilla Firefox Web browser, Skype voice-over-Internet service, OpenOffice software suite and a number of games. With your subscription to the Zonbu service, you gain access to an additional 25 gigabytes of online storage space, where your files are automatically encrypted and stored on backed up servers.
The concept here is that companies can sell the PC the same way cell phones are sold, subsidizing the cost of the hardware with the revenue from the monthly service charge.