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AT&T Mobility, following the lead of Verizon Wireless, is now selling netbooks, instead of just cell phones, to run on AT&T’s 3G wireless broadband network.
AT&T said Wednesday its netbook offering is targeted at business users, rather than consumers, by partnering with enterprise technology distributor CDW, to sell multiple netbooks that would be used by a company’s mobile work force and run on AT&T’s GSM network.
Verizon Wireless has for some time now been selling an HP Mini 1151NR netbook that runs on its wireless broadband network. As with cell phones, the price of the netbook is reduced from what it would be as a standalone purchase, but the buyer is required to sign a two-year service contract with the carrier.
Netbooks are essentially stripped down, lower priced notebook computers. They don’t have the Microsoft Windows operating system that takes up so much of the hard drive on today’s notebooks, but they offer the currently most popular applications, including a Web browser, a wi-fi connection, media players, IM, e-mail and access to social networking sites. Most are priced below $300 and are smaller and more lightweight than notebooks.
AT&T distinguishes itself in its netbook offering by targeting the business market. By partnering with CDW, AT&T says it can deliver to a business user a netbook with customized configuration for the specific needs of that business, AT&T explained in a news release.
In addition, netbooks can be set up to access a company’s VPN for secure access to the corporate network. And the e-mail program allows larger than normal file attachments to speed business communications.
Besides netbooks, AT&T and CDW will also begin marketing standard notebook computers, such as the Panasonic Toughbook, as well as other models from HP and Acer. Sprint is “exploring opportunities” for selling netbooks to run on its network, but doesn’t have anything to announce right now, said Caroline Semerdjian, a Sprint spokeswoman in San Francisco.
AT&T cites IDC research that indicates netbooks are a hot new market: 11.6 million mininotebook or netbook units were shipped worldwide in 2008 and IDC projects double-digit growth rates in the segment in coming years.
But some in the industry are skeptical of the netbook trend. Tech journalist Harry McCracken, whose blog is titled The Technologizer, challenges the computer industry’s spin that a netbook is an entirely different product from a notebook. They’re really just notebooks with less RAM, less powerful processors and fewer applications, he writes.
“To treat them as a fundamentally different sort of device is akin to Ford insisting that a Focus isn’t a car because it’s smaller, less powerful, and less luxurious than a Lincoln Continental,” McCracken noted.
I agree, although I used the Cadillac CTS-Chevrolet Aveo analogy. Same difference.
Still, if PC sales slowed by the recession can be given a jolt by offering something cheaper, then that’s the business plan the manufacturers have to follow.
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