First it was PC World who announced a 'free' laptop when you signed up to Orange Broadband. Now it's the turn of Carphone Warehouse who is offering a £500 Dell Inspiron when you sign up to AOL Broadband. Perhaps it's co-incidence that both of these retail giants have announced offerings around the same time. Or perhaps its just the quick thinking of marketers after eavesdropping on rivals in the juice bars of Soho. Whatever, the development is very intreguing.
Remember Dixons' Freeserve ? Remember it was the first pay-as-you-go ISP? Remember it completely turned the ISP market on its head? This is like that, only it has the potential to be bigger.
What if Carphone suddenly decide to do such an incentive with data card contracts? If you think about it, a cheap laptop isn't a whole lot more expensive to subsidise than an top-end mobile, so it's kinda the same principle.
Are the laptops worth it?
In a word, yes. OK, these are cheap models. They're hardly going to be up for gaming. But, if all you want is something to use for Word, Excel and the web and you need to get broadband to boot, then they will suit your needs. And they all run Vista, so it's a good way to get a new-gen laptop for no extra outlay than a bog-standard broadband connection.
These deals might be a fad. They might change the market. Whatever, we'll be watching with interest.
Tell us what you think
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