Wireless Carriers to Subsidize Netbooks?

Why does the iPhone 3G cost $199 / $299 while the original version cost $499 / $599? Simple: the new version is subsidized by AT&T when you sign up for a two-year contract. Well, that same sort of subsidy may be coming to netbooks as well.

As more and more netbooks and netbooks are being sold with 3G wireless broadband capability, it actually makes sense. No less than Michael Dell said in September that he expected telecommunications carriers to subsidize netbooks in order to sell 3G and later 4G subscriptions.

"Telcos will embrace it. It’s the type of product that could easily take advantage of data."

Earlier this week the Wall Street Journal said that HP is discussing such initiatives with various wireless carriers, such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless. This news comes on the heels of HP's introduction of its new Mini 1000 series of netbooks this week.

It's already done in other parts of the world, but not the U.S. In Asia and Europe carriers willl cuts hundreds of dollars off a PC's price of a computer if a customer signs a long-term service contract.

An example involving the best-known netbook, the Asus Eee PC, is the $29 price a consumer will pay when buying from Taiwanese carrier Far EasTone Communications Ltd. (with a two-year contract), rather than the $429 MSRP.

While it hasn't happened in the netbook area yet, there's already precedent established just this week. AT&T, Lenovo, and Ericsson inked a deal that chops $150 off a Lenovo laptop with a two-year service agreement.

Now, I have to admit, if I wanted to get mobile broadband anyway, it would be a good deal. On the other hand, if I wasn't interested in it (and I'm not), I wouldn't find a $150 cut in price an even deal for the amount extra I would pay for the contract.

After all, remember that simple math showed that despite the subsidy AT&T is giving on the iPhone 3G, it actually costs more than the original, unsubsidized iPhone. The same would obviously be true of this sort of deal. On the other hand, as I said, if you wanted mobile broadband anyway ...

So how low would such a netbook be? $99.99? $150? $200? Or would we even get the sort of deal I mentioned above, $29?