Sprint sells Netbook for a buck

[elboriyorker]

check this out guys !!!!!!!!!!!

If you thought a $99 Netbook was a bargain, Sprint Nextel's plan to sell Netbooks for a buck is a real steal.

Sprint has teamed up with mega-retailer Best Buy to sell the Compaq Mini 110c-1040DX Netbook for 99 cents with a two-year service contract. The offer is good at participating Best Buy stores.

Best Buy plans to sell the same Netbook for Verizon Wireless and AT&T for $199.99 with a two-year contract. Without any service contract, the Netbook costs $389.99, according to Best Buy's Web site.

Compaq Mini 110c-1040DX Netbook
(Credit: Compaq)

The Compaq Mini 110c-1040DX Netbook features a 1.6GHz processor and 160GB hard drive.

Sprint's 3G wireless service is $60 a month for 5GB of data monthly, making the true cost of the Netbook with two years of service $1,440.

Verizon offers two tiers of data service. The $40 a month plan offers 250MB of data monthly. And the $60 a month plan offers a maximum of 5GB of data. With the current pricing, Verizon Netbook users can expect to spend $1,160 to $1,640 during the life of the contract for the service and Netbook, depending on which plan they choose.

AT&T offers similar pricing for its data service. For up to 5GB of data per month, the service is $60 a month, plus it offers free access to AT&T's 20,000 nationwide Wi-Fi hot spots. A service that offers 200MB of data per month costs $40 a month. In addition to the current offering for the Compaq Mini, AT&T also offers other Netbook deals. The subsidy price on a variety of Netbooks, including the Acer Aspire One, Dell Inspiron Mini 9 and Mini 12, and LG Xenia, ranges from $50 to $250.

Netbooks are becoming a hot business for carriers that are looking to get consumers using their wireless data services. The wireless operators are taking a page out of their old playbooks by subsidizing the devices to spur adoption.

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[DenverDev]

First off- I fully admit that i do not have anywhere near the skills that so many of you have. I am wondering, however, how difficult it would be to find the "phone" or "Modem" part of this thing and configure a "ROM" for other CDMA carriers. I am guessing (and a big guess at that) that for the most part it would be very much like the internet connection for hte phones we are currently using. I am probably being very simplistic in my thoughts, but i would have to think that the carrier settings and the modem settings are probably pretty darn close to what we are using for our phones......

would love to hear thoughts on this........

[elboriyorker]

Originally Posted by DenverDev

First off- I fully admit that i do not have anywhere near the skills that so many of you have. I am wondering, however, how difficult it would be to find the "phone" or "Modem" part of this thing and configure a "ROM" for other CDMA carriers. I am guessing (and a big guess at that) that for the most part it would be very much like the internet connection for hte phones we are currently using. I am probably being very simplistic in my thoughts, but i would have to think that the carrier settings and the modem settings are probably pretty darn close to what we are using for our phones......

would love to hear thoughts on this........

lol..me personality i could use my ppc to connect, i do have a netbook.But for most people that don't have a ppc,they are willing to pay to connect.comcast is also coming out with the broadband card too.if i find the article i'll post it.Everyone is out there to make a buck...lol

[D/\SH]

good price and i feel more of these deals are to come when sprint starts making some cash.... the pre might have just saved their asses and now this deal! you see where they are going :) they need subscibers and monthly cash coming in.

[gadget945]

A lot of folks are actually thinking about buying these. They see it as a great steal, which in short term thinking it is. Figuring between my aircard and my two unlimited data plans, I average around 50GB a month, I don't see this being a steal for me.

One of my customers actually got a netbook from Dell as a gimme when he bought a laptop.

Between the regular cost of the contract and the restrictions, you've got an aircard wrapped in a little tiny netbook or you could look at it as a smartphone you can't actually use like a phone, but with a really big keyboard and screen.

I've had to help a couple of people with these. They are a pain in the butt to put anything on that you buy in a brick-n-mortar setting, since there isn't a CD drive. There isn't a "restore" feature, and you're basically screwed if you can't get on the web to do the backups.

I'm guessing they are neat so that you don't have to lug around a big laptop and carry CDs or DVDs around with you. They are great for folks that travel a lot, as they don't take up much room. They don't handle vibration well - think rolling around the country in an 18wheeler kind of vibration.

But they are cute.

[ON3/\L]

Shit I work at Sprint and I was thinking about adding a line to my employee plan just to get the damn netbook myself...it wouldn't really suite my needs and the aircard I would just let my wife use on her lappy because I wouldn't need it for internet, but thats a damn steal man! Even if I didn't keep it, I could easily sell it if I got tired of it. But I think would be nice, I have my dual booted desktop tweaked out for all my programming and customizing and downloading etc, I would just use that for convenience and mobile usage. I'm sure if you absoltuely need more out of it you could get an external hd for it or cd rom like a plug and play or something. Still a good deal for sure and I wouldn't be paying $60.00 month for my air card anyway so really good deal..but as usual I'm sure they would ty to count me out since I am an employee and all, but idk.... Lot's more of this will be rolling out, especially with Sprints 4G network in motion. This is only the begining, and YES, the Pre did do a lot for Sprint and will cntinue to keep working in their favor in the future. Along w any of the future Palm devices to come since WebOs will be included in future Palms to come as well...now that I can't wait to see! Just picture a whole line of these WebOs phones to choose from...each unique and w sd cards etc....future is looking very nice for Sprint and Palm!

[gadget945]

Yeah, I'm guessing that this is a good deal for anyone who wants to have something to get around easy with.

I'd consider getting it for one of my kids to use for school, but I'd be worried about them going over the limit on the web usage.

Any ideas of how much the overage is gonna be, is it per KB?