eMachines
More info
- Released
- 1998–2013
- Type
- PC maker
- Successor
- Acquired by Gateway, then Acer
The brand that pushed PC prices below $500 and turned the home computer into something you picked up next to the microwaves.
eMachines was launched in 1998 by the Korean manufacturers TriGem and Korea Data Systems. Its first model, the eTower, cost $499 at a time when a "real" PC went for twice that. Margins were close to zero; the business model was volume through big-box retailers, not service.
In 1999 the company released the eOne, a translucent all-in-one that looked suspiciously like an iMac. Apple sued and the model was pulled. Gateway bought eMachines in 2004, Acer bought Gateway in 2007, and in 2013 Acer quietly retired the name — an ending that, fittingly, almost nobody noticed.