After an absence of a decade, Philips Electronics is making personal computers again, the company said yesterday. The Netherlands-based electronics conglomerate, which abandoned the PC business in the early 1990s after suffering big losses, quietly introduced six models together with British retailer Dixons this week.
The Dutch company said it had not wanted to draw attention to a "soft" launch of products that would be available only in six European countries, including Britain, Ireland, Spain and Italy. The deal with Dixons means Philips has found another retail outlet for the Internet-connected products it has co-branded Streamium. The PCs, branded Philips-Freeline, have been preconfigured to work with other Streamium products, so consumers can simply stream music from their PCs to stereo speakers or television sets over a wireless connection.