The WebPC was a short-lived

personal computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...

Dell Computer Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcams among other produ ...

for the consumer market. The computer was designed to make it easy for home users to connect to the Internet. A

small form factor Small form factor (SFF) is a classification of desktop computers and for some of their components, chassis and motherboard, to indicate that they are designed in accordance with one of several standardized form factors intended to minimize the vo ...

machine, the WebPC was an early system in a class known as

legacy-free PC A legacy-free PC is a type of personal computer that lacks a floppy or optical disc drive, legacy ports, and an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus (or sometimes, any internal expansion bus at all). According to Microsoft, "The basic goal for ...

Specifications and price

The system was originally introduced in 1999. Available in prices ranging from $999 through $2,399 USD.Michael Kanellos
Dell consumer PC shows focus on the Net
''C, Net News'', November 30, 1999. Its cheapest configuration was a 433-MHz Intel Celeron processor,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was the second operating system in the 9x line, as the successor to Windows 95. It was Software ...

, 64 MB of system

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

, a 4 GB

hard disk A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...

, a 15-inch

CRT CRT or Crt most commonly refers to: * Cathode-ray tube, a display * Critical race theory, an academic framework of analysis CRT may also refer to: Law * Charitable remainder trust, United States * Civil Resolution Tribunal, Canada * Columbia ...

monitor Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, Wes ...

, a year's worth of

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

service and a

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

printer for $999 USD. In a move remotely mimicking the

iMac The iMac is a series of all-in-one computers from Apple Inc., sold as part of the company's Mac (computer), Mac family of computers. First introduced in 1998, it has remained a primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since and evol ...

, Dell also offered the WebPC in different colors, however the colors only were accents on the case; the majority of the case remained black. In 2000, Dell offered upgraded models of the WebPC, featuring processors up to a

Pentium III The Pentium III (marketed as Intel Pentium III Processor, informally PIII or P3) brand refers to Intel's 32-bit x86 desktop and mobile CPUs based on the sixth-generation P6 (microarchitecture), P6 microarchitecture introduced on February 28, 1999 ...

at 600 MHz, 10/100

Ethernet Ethernet ( ) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

built in (previous models included only a 56K modem), a bundled

flat panel display A flat-panel display (FPD) is an electronic display used to display visual content such as text or images. It is present in consumer, medical, transportation, and industrial equipment. Flat-panel displays are thin, lightweight, provide better ...

, and larger hard disks up to 20 GB.Dell Lowers Prices and Adds Features to WebPC
www.dell.com News, March 16, 2000 The system's case was extremely compact. The

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

DVD-ROM The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

drive was a laptop-type unit with a custom bezel, but its internal IDE

hard disk drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...

was a standard 3.5" drive.The system also made use of

Mini PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) is a local computer bus for attaching hardware devices in a computer and is part of the PCI Local Bus standard. The PCI bus supports the functions found on a processor bus but in a standardized format ...

, another standard typically found on laptop computers, for its communications card. It did however use standard

SDRAM Synchronous dynamic random-access memory (synchronous dynamic RAM or SDRAM) is any DRAM where the operation of its external pin interface is coordinated by an externally supplied clock signal. DRAM integrated circuits (ICs) produced from the ...

modules for memory. The case measured only 6 inches wide, 10.7 inches high, 10.1 inches deep and weighed a maximum of about 12 pounds.Dell WebPC Fact Sheet
www.dell.com, Press package for the Dell WebPC It also featured a unique "e-support" button that caused the computer to run diagnostic tests and also allowed quick access to online technical support.

Discontinuation

In July 2000, Dell discontinued production of the WebPC.Michael Kanellos and Joe Wilcox

''C, Net News'', July 10, 2000 WebPC computers are rarely seen today, however they have been known to appear on

eBay eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...

References

External links

Dell WebPC Overview video by BBISHOPPCM's World on YouTube

Specifications and price

Discontinuation

References

External links

See Also