Subsidized phones became the dominat pricing plan for wireless carriers in the US. Sign up for a new two year contract, and a free or lower cost phone was yours for the asking. While we never really questioned it, most of us were smart enough to realize that the cost of the handset was rolled into the monthly fee.
With saturated markets, and expensive 3G infrastructure investments, carriers are eager to expand beyond just cell phones. While smartphones are the more common way they are doing this, they have also moved into the netbook business as well.
AT&T offers the Acer Aspire One, which normally goes for $349, for a cool $99 price tag. The catch is that the recipient must sign up for a new 2 year data contract for $60 monthly which more than pays for the cheaper netbook. About the only reason to go for that deal is if you were gonna sign up for that mobile data plan anyway, and liked that model of netbook.
There must have been enough interest generated from this as Verizon plans to do the same. Expect a subsidized netbook in Verizon’s retail stores as early as sometime next quarter. The open questions are which manufacturer of netbook (ASUS and HP are favorites at this point), and what the monthly hit to the wallet will be.
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