If Disney (NYSE:DIS) has its way, your next personal computer purchase will find its mouse bearing a likeness to Disney's own Mickey Mouse. Yes, next month Disney will start shipping out kid-friendly PCs, complete with mouse-eared peripherals and bundled with a ton of branded software.
At $950 the price definitely seems steep for a system that young hands may eventually outgrow. However, Disney is offering a $200 gift card good at DisneyStore.com if you preorder before the product's early September launch. If you're enough of a Disneyphile to want this deep-blue computing machine around, you may very well have been spending those $200 at the company's online store over the holidays anyway. So, let's price it at $750 -- with another $17.95 shipping. That's definitely reasonable given the system's specs, but does any of this compute?
Disney has an uphill challenge here. Mattel (NYSE:MAT) had licensed PCs themed to its Barbie and Hot Wheels properties bomb -- and at lower selling prices. Disney is also risking rubbing some of its partners the wrong way. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) is the sponsor of Disney's popular Mission Space attraction, yet the system's printer is a Lexmark (NYSE:LXK). Disney's important relationship with Pixar (NASDAQ:PIXR) is already strained, yet its machines will be powered by Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) operating system. Pixar is controlled by Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) chief Steve Jobs.
The timing of the entry-level system could have been better. After all, for consumers this is an investment in the Disney brand remaining kid cool at least long enough until the system's specs grow outdated. A decade ago, when Disney's feature animation division was at the top of its game, they would have sold like syrupy hotcakes. But now, after a string of theatrical duds and with Pixar ready to bolt, how will Disney assure that kids want the rat-eared monitor staring back at them when they boot up?
Even Disney looking to sell off the Disney Store units that it hasn't shuttered already speaks volumes as an admission that its own brand isn't enough to sell wares the way it used to.
But golden brands don't bronze overnight. Just as important, Disney has far more in distribution channels and exposure outlets than Mattel ever had. The Disney Dream Desk won't be a nightmare. Yet it's going to take some brand polishing to make this Dream come true.
Would you pay $950 for a starter PC? Is the Disney brand still a valuable asset or a potential liability? Why do the machines come only in navy blue and not princess pink? All this and more in the Disney discussion board. Only on Fool.com.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz owns shares in Disney and Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation Pixar.
