AT&T loads up on 3G Netbooks

This week, AT&T (News - Alert) has decided to offer more 3G netbook choices to customers in lieu of dropping prices down to 99 cents a la the one-off Best Buy/Sprint deal.   Shoppers will be able to go either online or into stories to choose from the Acer Aspire One, Dell (News - Alert) Inspiron Mini 10, and the Lenovo S10.

 

A new netbook of any brand will cost $199.99 after a rebate delivered through an AT&T Promotion Card (think debit Visa) along with the all-important (i.e. you won't get a netbook without it) two year service contract commitment to an AT&T data plan. 

 

From a tech-spec perspective, all of the notebooks work out to be equal, with 10 inch screens and weighing in at less than 3 pounds; all have an Intel (News - Alert) Atom processor, Microsoft Windows XP Home, a 160 GB hard drive 1 GB of memory, built-in WiFi and 3G, and an integrated webcam. It isn't clear from the announcement if the Acer Aspire One or Lenovo come with a 3-cell or 6-cell battery pack, but there is bragging about Lenovo's face recognition technology and some other software goodies.

 

Depending on your company's preferences and those of your end-users, today's announcement mean that, in a pinch, you can go buy a 3G netbook directly from an AT&T store around the corner for a one-off to keep an executive happy. Combine with AT&T's announcement earlier this month about CDW reselling Acer, HP and Panasonic (News - Alert) netbooks with embedded AT&T 3G connectivity, companies have plenty of netbook choices available and multiple channels available.

 

More selections haven't translated into the sweetheart 99 cent deal Sprint has offered up, but AT&T is offering some incentives to buy through its channels directly. For a relative list-price comparison, the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 with a 3G card is around $475, but users buying through Dell and signing up for 2 year AT&T data plan will get a $120 Visa Reward Card rebate card back, so when the smoke clears you pay more by buying through Dell.

 

There's also the typical gotcha fees that may apply (i.e. if you're buying in quantity, you should be able to get them reduced or waved), including up to $36 for an activation fee and an early termination free of up to $175 if you bail out after the first 30 days, and "some agents" may impose additional fees.

 

I'd give 50-50 odds that next week Verizon (News - Alert) Wireless would be next in the rotation for a netbook announcement. For: To match Sprint and AT&T's netbook fun. Against: Verizon Wireless will be focused more on its open developer's conference in Silicon Valley next week and will want to stay on an "open" message rather than getting into a dogfight over who has the most and lowest price netbooks.