Courtesy Wikipedia
Netbooks continue to be the silver lining of the dark cloud hanging over the PC industry: In 2009, netbook sales will increase 65 percent over 2008, compared to just 3 percent for traditional laptops, says DisplaySearch.
Some netbooks ship with built-in cellular modems, a design that’s common in Asia and Europe and slowly catching on in North America. As they’ve done for decades with cell phones, a few wireless carriers are subsidizing the cost of netbooks with embedded modems in order to drop the retail price to the point that it attracts more consumers. The business model: Earn back the subsidy -- and then some -- by locking the netbook buyer into a two-year contract at $60-$70 per month for cellular broadband service.
That offering can create buyer’s remorse, or kill the sale altogether, when users realize that a $99 netbook actually winds up costing $1,540 or more by the time the contract runs out. Another hurdle is that unless customers begin using cellular as their primary way to access the Internet, the monthly wireless bill will be on top of what they’re already paying for DSL or cable -- a tough sell in flush times, let alone the current economy.
So it’s no surprise that some wireless carriers are looking to overcome those hurdles by making netbooks part of a bundle that includes wired and cellular broadband. Case in point: AT&T, which is offering netbooks for as little as $50 when users sign up for the “Internet at Home and On the Go” package.
The $59.99 bundle includes access to AT&T’s DSL, cellular broadband and Wi-Fi networks, with a few caveats such as DSL speeds and cellular usage caps. Fine print aside, what makes AT&T’s offering noteworthy is the way that it attempts to overcome cost concerns that would keep embedded netbooks a niche play even as the rest of the sector grows.
AT&T won’t be the only company closely watching sales of this bundle. For example, it’s not hard to envision Verizon offering a similar bundle, or one that also includes discounts on wired phone service and video. The also goes for Bright House Networks, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, which are slowly adding wireless capabilities through their stakes in Clearwire, or Cox, which just gave Huawei the contract to build a cellular network.
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