It is always interesting to see what tries to get passed off as low priced in a down economy. A decade ago, computers were more expensive, as was internet access. Back then, folks were willing to pay over $20 monthly for super slow dialup access. If you’ve ever tried to surf the internet at 56k, you will attest to how lackluster it is. At any rate, a few short years ago, Microsoft had the plan to sell a subsidized computer that made up for it with highly overinflated internet access.
Today, this is being likened to the subsidized $99 netbook. As the phone carriers are already used to overcharging for the handsets, and the subscriptions to their wireless 3G access could be growing faster, why not use a cute netbook to sweeten the deal?
I see two possible scenarios where this works, as objectively it is not a good deal due to the expensive access. However, for the user that was planning on buying a netbook anyway, along with telco access, this can be a small savings. The other scenario is if the carriers integrate in the wireless dongle, which will make the devices sleeker, and free up a USB port in these netbooks that have at most, three.
In the meantime, I don’t see any great value here, and think the $60 monthly fee that the carriers are charging for their access as too dear for most of us in this economy.
Leave a Reply