Nokia 5800 OEM
Hi,
OEM generally means "original equipment manufacturer." Sometimes it is
referred to as "bulk packed", "white box", "brown box" and "gray
market".
Almost all PC component and software vendors make two versions
of the same product based on a difference in the distribution channels.
Retail ("distribution") is the main consumer channel, whilst OEM (to
various systems manufacturers) is another.
The retail channel typically uses colourful retail boxed
products, with installation manuals, software CDs etc. Of course the
cost of making the nice-looking packages is passed on to you, the
customer. Retail packages are also more voluminous, and therefore cost
more to ship. The OEM channel distributes products mainly to system
builders and integrators, for example Dell, HP and Sun (the OEMs) and
many small ones such as the mom-and-pop shop on the corner and embedded
systems designers. These bulk-pack products do not have fancy packaging
materials and are often produced in much higher volume, both of which
result in much lower prices that are not generally available to the
public. The OEM products are of the same quality as their retails
counterparts. However sometimes the manufacturer warranty is different,
shorter or non existent. They also tend not to include supporting
materials such as manuals and drivers when applicable, however these
are available for download (which tend to be more current versions
anyway). Where ever possible DiscounTechnology.com distributes and
sells the OEM versions of products (e.g. SCSI hard drives). This allows
our customers to benefit from substantially reduced capital costs and
much improved return on investment (R.O.I.). Besides the packaging and
prices, there are sometimes other subtle and not-so-subtle differences
between the retail and OEM versions of a product. Here are a few
examples.
Warranty: Many types of OEM hardware components come with the
same warranty as retail boxed ones. One well-known exception is hard
drives. Retail boxed hard drives often come with a three or five year
warranty, while the warranty of OEM drives is the responsibility of the
reseller. Please check the product page for Limited Warranty
information where applicable. We believe the substantial price savings
of OEM hard drives easily justifies the difference in the warranty.
Some of our OEM drives are 50% the price of a retail drive. That means
you'd have to have more than two drives fail after the end of our
warranty, but before the end of the retail warranty before the retail
warranty would save you any money. That assumes that the replacement
drives are the same price in the future. However as we all know,
technology price continually drop. So in 5 years when your drive is
likely to fail, how much will a replacement be? Will you want the same
"small" capacity in five years anyway?
N.B. Many computer systems manufacturers (e.g. IBM, Dell, HP)
will ONLY warranty drives installed in their systems if the drives have
their OEM part numbers. So if your server or system has an active
warranty, it may cover our OEM drives, if you select a part with a OEM
part number from that same manufacturer (meaning Dell OEM for Dell
servers etc.).
Bundled Software: Sometimes the retailed version comes with
bundled applications software, whereas the OEM version may not. This is
especially true for high-end video and audio cards. How useful such
bundled software is to you needs to be carefully weighed against the
price difference.
Manual and Support: The hard-copy manual for the OEM version
may be limited to one per shipping box. However, the vast majority of
information is on the manufacturer's web site. Some manufacturers claim
that they do not support their own OEM products. The OEMs are supposed
to do the support. In such cases, discountechnology.com will provide
the technical guidance to help you install the product.
Thanks.
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