Most anyone who has been on the web for any length of time has heard of Jesse Berst. In fact, I have read in several major publications that he is widely considered to be the most influential writer on the Internet. Jesse Berst publishes a column several times each week known as ZDNet's Anchordesk.

But Jesse obviously didn't major in math.

Yesterday Jesse posted a column titled, The Cheap PC Revolution. This column is based on Intel's announcement that it will lower processor prices "to compete against products from rivals Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Cyrix Corp.". Well, that's great! Competition is a great thing!

But, Jesse went on to predict that these low priced processors will result in $800.00, and eventually $500.00 PCs.

Sorry Jesse, but that is just plain ridiculous.

First of all, I've looked at many of the so-called sub-$1000.00 PCs currently available. The ones I've seen are built from last year's mismatched leftover parts.

Second, I've checked all the sale flyers that come in Sunday newspapers. A decent mid-range PC is about $1700.00 - the same as a decent mid-range PC was two years ago.

Third, I've got a current Dell catalog sitting here on my desk. The absolute cheapest PC in the catalog (with almost no included software), is their M200a at $1699.00 (you can lease it for $78.00 a month - gee, what a bargain!)

Ok, so lets assume that Intel is currently selling this 200 Mhz processor for $100.00. Even if Intel started giving the processors away, this PC would still cost $1599.00. And, like I said, that includes almost no software.

Jesse Berst is well known for writing controversial articles to stir up debate. But I think this particular article is a deliberate lie. Like Microsoft's well known "vaporware" announcements, this article seems to have a definite purpose. I would guess the purpose is to kill the appeal of inexpensive Network Computers.