AT&T to sell cheap mini-laptops -- but read the fine print
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Acer Aspire One netbook. Credit: Acer Inc.
AT&T will soon be offering the Acer Aspire One netbook at its cellphone stores nationwide at the bargain price of $199.99!
But wait, there’s more. Unfortunately.
That bargain price for the mini-laptop, which elsewhere costs about $325, is valid only if the buyer signs up for two years of an online data plan.
The plan comes in two flavors -- $40 a month for a 200MB limit on data transfer or $60 a month for 5GB. That would bring the cost of ownership over two years to either $1,159.99 or $1,639.99. Plus tax.
AT&T’s two-year requirement mimics its cellphone plans, which offer huge discounts on phones if you sign up for two years of service.
But the netbook doesn’t need a data plan to work online. In the presence of Wi-Fi, the Aspire One can browse the Web, send e-mail, do instant messaging and otherwise make use of the online world.
The AT&T package makes sense only if you need or very much want to use the netbook online away from Wi-Fi hotspots. With a data plan, the Internet becomes available in a car, on a train or from a park bench in most parts of the country. Handy, but expensive. And many people are already paying for data plans to work with their advanced cellphones.
But this kind of package deal could be a trend. Earlier this month BestBuy offered for a short time a mini-laptop for only 99 cents, plus a two-year, $60-a-month data plan commitment.
-- David Colker
