Dell Laptops Starting at $449
Subsidized Acer Aspire One Hitting RadioShack for $99?
December 8th, 2008 by Joanna Stern 
We are finally starting to see netbooks pop up with U.S. mobile broadband options (Dell and HP made announcements in the past few weeks). And if the leaked RadioShack flyer that has popped up on Engadget is legit (and it does look it) we will be starting to see cell phone carriers subside the cost of netbooks in exchange for signing up for a monthly data plan.
Updated: This is official now.
The flyer (full image below) really gives it all away. It seems that starting December 14 RadioShack customers can get an originally $499 priced Acer Aspire One (with a 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, and Windows XP) for $99 for signing up for a 2-Year $60/month (or more) data plan through AT&T.
If you do the math that would be about $1,440 over 2-years which is almost three times the amount you would pay for the Aspire one without the embedded 3G solution.
Beyond the price, you are paying $60 a month for connectivity in only one device. If your netbook is your primary mobile computer that makes sense, but if you have another laptop you can’t share that 3G connectivity with it. In that case, I would think it would make more sense to just grab a mobile broadband card.
But you tell us, is it worth it?
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3 Responses to “Subsidized Acer Aspire One Hitting RadioShack for $99?”
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December 9th, 2008 at 1:04 am
The article writer fails to mention that with the netbook’s HSDPA 3G solution (running on an internal Qualcomm internal USB header connected aircard) the SIM card can simply be removed from the netbook and used on another aircard or any AT&T PDA phone (net only, no voice) if the owner wishes; so it’s not THAT bad, do some research lazy ppl.
December 9th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Aeondisney, you are totally right. Since it is AT&T is its easily swappable. Thanks for responding.
December 12th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
well you could always go to at&t and get a usb dongle for 100, with a 100 rebate. the use the sim card in it to have mobile internet on any device! got that info from a At&t rep.