Why Netbooks Will Soon Cost $99

CWmike sends along a ComputerWorld piece which predicts that "netbooks like the Asus Eee PC, the Dell Mini 9 and the HP 2133 Mini-Note will soon cost as little as $99. The catch? You'll need to commit to a two-year mobile broadband contract. The low cost will come courtesy of a subsidy identical to the one you already get with your cell phone. It's likely that HP is working with AT&T (they're reported to be talking), which announced a major strategic shift a couple of weeks ago that should result in AT&T stores selling nonphone gadgets that can take advantage of mobile broadband, including netbooks. What's more interesting is that low income and cheapskate buyers are starting to use iPhones as replacements or substitutes for netbook, notebook and even desktop PCs. The author's take: A very large number of people are increasingly looking to buy a single device — or, at least, subscribe to a single wireless account — for all their computing and communications needs, and at the lowest possible price."

Comments

Ray Kurzweil

[suburbanmediocrity]

I believe predicted this many years ago.

Of course I think that he also predicted that we would eventually also be marrying them at some point. Now I think we're just living together.

Re:Welcome to the future - UK

[gertam]

And I thought you were talking about the brown sauce. :-)

Re:"cheapskate buyers"?

[AliasMarlowe]

From the OP: ... that low income and cheapskate buyers are starting to use iPhones as replacements or substitutes for netbook, ....

An iPhone costs more than some existing netbooks, so these must be affluent imbeciles or ardent fashionistas (both groups being significant subsets of the iPhone demographic), rather than "cheapskates" or "low income". Of course, these are exactly the right target market for selling a netbook with a locked-in WLAN communication contract, preferably at an eye-watering overall profit level.

Re:"cheapskate buyers"?

[Rogerborg]

This is Slashdot. We only consider Asia in the context of giant robots. The idea that several billion people have bypassed the concept of the personal computer altogether and gone for the shared terminal + personal high end cellphone solution scares us. How do those craaaaazy foreigners even tar zip their lunix squid over ssh?