Acer Aspire One Now $79 with AT&T Plan
PrintWhy pay $399 for a netbook when you can get the same model for just $79? That's the question Radio Shack hopes netbook shoppers will be asking themselves, and are prepared to answer with Acer's AT&T 3G-equipped Aspire One. Of course there's a caveat, which comes in the form of a qualifying 2-year AT&T service agreement on a rate plan starting at $60/month.
In case you missed it the first time around, Acer's popular Aspire One comes with an 8.9-inch LED backlit LDC screen, Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, Windows XP, and everything else you'd expect in a basic netbook configuration. This is also the same netbook that previously sold for $99 with a service contract, with the latest discount coming in anticipation of Verizon's deal to sell the HP Mini 1000 for a discount.
Let the subsidized price wars begin.
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Keith E. Whisman
April 20, 2009 at 6:02pm
You know I'm reminded of the old days when ISP's offered extremely discounted and even free computers for a two year service contract. Alot of people got some pretty crappy computers back then and they got pretty upset when those computers didn't play the games they bought at WalMart. That is how I made a few bucks here and there by upgrading those PC's so they could play games.
That was back during the Dot Com craze. When Computer Shopper Magazine was the size of the Yellow Pages.
bathtbgin
April 20, 2009 at 2:55pm
Isnt this the same "deal" that you reported on a month or so ago? only i think that time around you focused on the fact that ATT was charging somone $480 per gigabyte in bandwidth overage costs. I remember when BB and CC tried this gimmick a few years back, you'd get a desktop for around $500 but you had to sign up for 2 years of AOL or MSN, which resulted in you spending far more money over those 2 years than the computer originally cost. This is the exact same scam, you save $320 up front on a netbook, but you end up paying $1440 over the course of 2 years for an ISP that limits you to 5GB of traffic per month.
unixfool
April 24, 2009 at 12:04pm
This is more like a cell phone plan. In fact, that's essentially what it is. The SIM card is inside the netbook so that internet connectivity is attained like a mobile phone. An owner of one of these will have to remember that each rendered webpage has the potential to put them over their allotted traffic per month. Every ping, every stream of music, every visit to a website, every sync of time to a time server, every e-mail sent/received will use those allocated packets. For checking e-mail and such, 5GB a month should suffice. Constant music streaming or video chat may not suffice, though. MS Windows patches will be HUGE, as will application and game patches. A workaround would be to perform system maintenance through wifi and/or CAT5.
This type of setup isn't for everyone. If I need internet that much and have my mobile with me, I can always tether my phone to my netbook for temp access, but my phone already has internet access...why bother.
chronium
April 20, 2009 at 12:40pm
now thats a price im willing to pay for a netbook but without a forced internet plan
nekollx
April 20, 2009 at 12:28pm
hummmm sould like just what i was looking for...but i wonder when i'm home can i conenct to my local wifi network and use my cable plan and just use the ATT service when i'm out of the house?
myth90045
April 21, 2009 at 8:35am
@nekollx
yes you can use your wifi and your cable at home with this netbook. There shouldn't be a block on that from ATT. and when you are out, you can use the ATT datacard to get some 3G action.
nekollx
April 21, 2009 at 8:40am
Guess its timeto shop aroudn for a netbook, from what ive ready this isnt the only (or even best deal) in town. and really it beat cracking open a 12 inch laptop to write something in OpenOffice or watching a fan Subbed AVI file.
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