oem oem - whats is it?

[santu_29]

OEM - What exactly is it? my dvd writer is oem, hdd is oem, what does it mean and what is it exactly?

[ahref]

original equipment manufacturer,

[Darthvader]

heres wat webopidea had to say

(pronounced as separate letters) Short for original equipment manufacturer, which is a misleading term for a company that has a special relationship with computer producers. OEMs buy computers in bulk and customize them for a particular application. They then sell the customized computer under their own name. The term is really a misnomer because OEMs are not the original manufacturers -- they are the customizers.

[santu_29]

well my hdd is seagate 80gb baracuda, its seagate, it isnt customized, then why is it said to be oem(well the retailer said so, umm...) ?

[desertwind]

In, simple terms your hardware is bought by some vendor in bulk as oem, and thay've sold it to u. In oem versions usually you get a proper casing for the product (will come in a plastic cover or so), and you'll rarely find any addons, like ide cables, cds etc

[santu_29]

hmm..... ok! i see

[Ankur Gupta]

oem are cheaper thn boxed packed things and donot have xtra accesories.
thts all i kno!

[Kniwor]

in simple words....
consider a processor, say by AMD...
OEM will be the one it will be selling to HP or other vendors in bulk so that they can put the processor in their machines... HP n all dont make processor, but companies have no restrictions on OEM and anyone can buy OEM's in bulk.... they usually cost less.....
but they will not have casing, they will not have support software etc...

OEM's might have different warranty guidelines very rarely but usually they DO HAVE the same warranty as the retail products... OEM's CD wiriters will usually not contain name of the manufacturer in the front where it is visible... because consider wipro... it uses Lit-on OEM CD writers.... now if Lite-on is written on the drive it will not look good....