Comments on: Would You Buy a Mini-Notebook from Your Wireless Carrier?

By: JW

JW — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:02:16 +0000

When I travel for work I will take the 17″ heavy Laptop I’ve been issued. However, when I travel for pleasure I DO NOT want to carry that Mammoth piece of equipment with me I rather have something far easier to manage. For the last two years I’ve logged 10s of thousands of airline miles and I just get tired of traveling with that big monkey. Furthermore, a majority of stateside Airports no longer provide free Wireless Internet (CLT, ORD, DFW, HOB, ATL, JFK, etc.) and after purchasing the easy $10 for 24 hours wireless connections that you only use maybe 3 hours I begin to get irritated. A small light computer that can access the internet from mostly anywhere I go sounds awesome. Yes, you can get a cell phone but I find the small keyboards and screen annoying. By the way those cell phones cost more than some mini laptops I’ve seen and you will pay more for the voice and data service.

By: James Killbery

James Killbery — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:03:47 +0000

the assumption that the mobile professional who needs to be connected at all times would use/need/prefer a full blown laptop is unwarrented. what they need is access to their data, securely , wherever they are, preferably with out any technology at all! do it is the challenge facing us IT managers to deliver a solution that is as minimal as possible. mini laptop are possible a solution, with all the data and app tucked saftely behinf the firewall. two year free wireless broadband might be the incentive to buy a min laptop for $1200

By: CJ

CJ — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:41:41 +0000

I agree with your comment about support, but disagree with all other assessment. The consumer is not paying $1200 over a two year installment period for a $400 mini laptop. They are getting 2 years worth of wireless broadband service for $1200 and a free mini laptop thrown in. They can either use their own laptop with the broadband service and hand down the mini to the kids – a perfect gift idea, or the mini may be just the right amount of computing power for a lot of road warriors who don’t want to lug 9 lbs of laptop, 6 lbs of accessories, a big bag and tons of cables. I think it’s well worth pursuing.