Hardware
Nokia Booklet 3G Will be $299 with AT&T Contract
Maybe it is just me, but I’ll call FAIL on this one. Nokia is announcing that the upper end Booklet 3G will be available exclusively at Best Buy beginning October 22 (yep, the Windows 7 roll out date) for $299. That is assuming you sign up for a two year contract with AT&T.
No, I’m not knocking AT&T here (I do that enough), and I’m not knocking the form factor (I don’t have enough real info to offer a thumbs up or down on that). What I’m knocking is the subsidization model. That model has served the mobile phone industry for what seems like centuries in mobile years, but it is time for it to go away. Think about it. Here’s the perfect opportunity for some change to happen. It is time to break the tie between subsidized contracts and specific devices.
The Booklet 3G will set you back $599 if you don’t want to go the subsidization route.
Via Engadget
Stuart
10/13/2009 at 11:01 am
I don’t see it as a FAIL. In fact, I see it as a success and can’t wait for it. Some people like the subsidized model–I do not so I’ll be getting it unsubsidized. The 16 cell battery, all-aluminum unibody, GPS netbook might not be for everyone but it seems better than the average netbook for me.
A netbook without mobile broadband is really limited. And one with short battery life is also limited. If it can deliver on all-day usage then it would defintely have an advantage over many netbooks. One unique feature of this netbook is that there is no ethernet port built-in. Just Wifi and 3G for connectivity.
I think it’s success will depend a lot on marketing but I feel it will probably do much better outside of the USA since most of the rest of the world is GSM so you can just swap in the sim from the carrier of your choice and won’t have the problems of the AT&T 3G network that exist in the USA.
Rob
10/13/2009 at 10:30 pm
every time I’m in Verizon, there is at least one person getting one of the Mini 1000’s that has integrated Verizon service. The reps tell me they are selling like crazy – people love the integrated service. I think it is us geeks that don’t like locked up devices.