Sprint Nextel is teaming with Best Buy to offer consumers a 99-cent netbook with a new two-year mobile data contract. The offer is good at participating Best Buy stores.
The netbooks, similar to laptops but designed specifically for Internet use with embedded mobile broadband, are available for that price this week,according to the Best Buy Web site. The same Compaq Mini 110c-1040DX netbook is available through Best Buy for $199.99 with two-year service agreements with AT&T Inc. or Verizon Wireless. Without a contract, it costs $389.99.
Sprint has been promoting its data capabilities as well as extending its data services to new segments, such as powering Amazon’s Kindle, an electronic reader.
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.
The netbook subsidy model is still in its infancy, so it’s unclear how strong consumer demand will be. One issue that has already come up is that most major mobile operators have a 5GB monthly data cap for mobile data services.