AT&T, Apple to partner on subsidized MacBooks?
For wireless carriers in Europe, a best selling promotional package has been to bundle a netbook and broadband service for a low upfront price and a two year service contract. For at least one teleco in the Great White North, bundling Internet service plus a Mac is already a reality—sounds great to me.
Canada’s Bell Aliant has been offering traditional broadband plus a Mac for one low monthly price for years. Thereupon, there is a rumor that O2, which sells the iPhone in the UK and Ireland, and Apple are considering a broadband plus MacBook bundle, as well.
Now, Fortune (CNN) reports that AT&T’s Glenn Lurie—president of the company’s Emerging Devices division—believes the carrier’s next hardware plus service hit might not be a phone, but a 3G enabled portable or ultra portable. In fact, the company has already making bold moves in that direction.
The psychology that drove cellphone penetration—free or super cheap handsets bundled with a service agreement—has already been applied by AT&T and its retail partner RadioShack, which is offering an Acer netbook plus wireless service package with an upfront cost of $99 and a two-year contract.
Further, AT&T is already moving to extend their early success and is partnering with Sony (wireless enabled camera) and Dell (netbook) for similar deal.
“We’re having conversations with lots of folks. I would very much like to do more business with Apple, and hope that we do,” said Glenn Lurie, president of emerging devices at AT&T
Given that Apple’s least expensive notebook sells for $999, it is rather unlikely AT&T will ever offer a $99 upfront plus two year contract deal—$399 seems a more reasonable asking. Still, given the MacBook’s high resale prices (MacofAllTrades) and the absolute value of being online everywhere and anywhere you can get an AT&T signal, this sounds like something I would be very, very interested in…
How about you?
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