Gateway Shutting Down Affiliate Program, Online Website Sales

Just got this message through CJ that said Gateway is shutting down their affiliate program and the Gateway.com website will become an educational website. They also give the typical 2 or 3 day notice, as always, affiliate marketers take it because they have to.

Hello Everyone,

Hope you’re doing well!

I regret to inform you that the Gateway program is being shut down. As of July 27th, Gateway.com will be transformed into an educational site and will no longer be a forum for e-commerce.

Please remove all links immeditately in order to avoid product fulfillment issues.

It has been a pleasure working with all of you.

Best,

The Gateway Team

Gotta love the lack of spell checking nowadays.

Affiliate marketers aren’t the only ones who are losing out; all of the online sales reps are losing their jobs too. Gateway will continue to sell their computers at retail outlets, and, I assume on websites like Buy.com, Newegg, Overstock, TigerDirect, etc. This has certainly caused a little uproar on sites like this one TabletPCReview, where many members were hoping to get an updated C-142XL tablet. One rep they talked to said he didn’t think they were continuing the tablet pc’s, while another said they were the leader in the tablet market and she thought it would be crazy to stop selling the line.

I am assuming they will still sell on the big sites like TigerDirect, but it would be good to get an official word from someone at Gateway. It seems like a bad move on Gateway’s part, I much prefer ordering everything online so I don’t have to deal with the sales people.

Thanks again for the short notice.

Added: Some posts about it on Techmeme today:
From Between the Lines In a statement, Mark Hill, Acer’s U.S. general manager said: “We are shifting Gateway’s distribution method to better align with Acer’s successful global strategy, which was built upon an indirect model.”

Larry adds: Bottom line: Don’t go to Gateway.com if you want a system. You’ll find Gateways at outlets like Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Costco, Office Depot, OfficeMax, and Wal-Mart.

From Yahoo! Finance This change will dramatically simplify Gateway’s business model and deliver significant cost savings, ultimately resulting in an improved value proposition for consumers.

“We believe that our retail and e-tail partners offer consumers the best, easiest and most effective way to purchase Gateway products,” said Mark Hill, Acer Group U.S. General Manager. “Customers can rest assured that they will continue to get the award-winning products and outstanding technical support they’ve come to expect from Gateway for the last 23 years.”

Frpm PC World The change has resulted in some staff cuts, said Lisa Emard, a Gateway spokeswoman. “These reductions have been happening in small waves as the company has methodically evaluated each department and function,” she said.

The change could help Gateway better compete with rivals Hewlett-Packard and Dell, said David Daoud, research manager at IDC. Also, since the indirect model has worked well for Acer, it may be hoping that focusing on the same model can help boost Gateway sales.

Posted by Jimmy Daniels Posted in: Affiliate Marketing, Branding Mistakes, HP Computers, Layoffs No Comments » July 2008

HP Computers to be Distributed with Live Search Toolbar

Here’s a note for all those people who think Google is unbeatable in the search engine “wars”, Microsoft has signed a deal to distribute a customizable Live search toolbar on every HP computer starting in January 2009. The default search will also be set to Live, much like Firefox’s default search is set to Google.

“This agreement with HP is a strategic indicator of our increased focus on securing broad-scale distribution for Live Search,” said Kevin Johnson, president of the Platforms & Services Division at Microsoft. “This is the most significant distribution deal for Live Search that Microsoft has ever done, and we are very pleased to be partnering with HP to help bring Live Search to millions of consumers across North America.”

Microsoft is building a custom, Live Search-enabled toolbar for HP customers that take advantage of the exceptional user experience capabilities of Microsoft Silverlight. The toolbar will provide HP with customization capabilities within the buttons on the toolbar, providing quick and easy access to a variety of online services and tools, such as Snapfish by HP, the company’s online photo service, and HP customer support.

“This agreement provides HP customers with an outstanding search product in Live Search, as well as a user-friendly, fully customizable way to access their favorite online services,” said Ulf Claesson, vice president of Worldwide Attach at HP. “Microsoft shares HP’s passion for delivering world-class technology to consumers in meaningful ways, and today’s announcement will help to provide an even more personal computing experience for HP customers.” Source: Microsoft Live Search Toolbar to Be Distributed on 2009 HP Consumer PCs

With HP commanding about 20% of computer sales, this is one huge deal for Microsoft, if they can knock down deals with the other four top computer manufacturers, they could make a HUGE dent in Google’s dominance, Dell may be a hard one to get, but surely they can land a deal with Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba, especially if they are offering them 4 bucks an install like they are currently in their affiliate program, check it out here. May as well combine it with Windows Live Onecare and get virus and spyware scanning, firewalls, tune-ups, file backups as well as better protection against phishing scams and viruses adding the toolbar.

Add this to the little cash back experiment they are doing and they could lure some new visitors with new pc purchases and keep them there with the cash back offering. Why not, if you can save more money by purchasing your HP computer from the same place but get extra back because you are using Live search, you’ll definitely end up with some new users.

Check out the HP computers listing on one of our other sites and are always updated listing of great computer deals.

Posted by Jimmy Daniels Posted in: Google, HP Computers, Search Engines, Windows Live No Comments » June 2008