Verizon confirms plans to sell Netbooks
AT&T already sells this Acer Netbook with service through RadioShack. What will its chief rival bring to the Netbook marketplace? — (Credit: RadioShack) — Home - News - Crave — Crave — March 28, 2009 12:55 PM PDT
Context & Ripple Effects
The netbook-as-subsidized-device playbook has been building for months: Engadget reported a contract-laden 3G Acer Aspire One hitting the US at just $99 in December 2008, Dell formally entered the category that fall, and AT&T moved first among carriers by selling an Acer netbook bundled with service through RadioShack.
Verizon's confirmation closes the loop on a plan leaked in February via Boy Genius Report's roundup of upcoming Verizon news including Netbooks. With its chief rival already retailing a service-tied netbook, the confirmation signals that the two largest US carriers now treat cheap connected laptops as a standard part of their subscriber-acquisition arsenal — much as Verizon's earlier iPhone-rival push showed it willing to counter Apple-adjacent moves head-on.
First-order effects
- Verizon joins AT&T in the carrier-netbook market, giving shoppers a direct choice of subsidized 3G laptops from the two biggest US networks at RadioShack-style retail channels.
Second-order effects
- Acer and other netbook makers gain a second subsidized distribution path alongside traditional PC retail, while AT&T faces pressure to deepen or discount its existing RadioShack bundle rather than cede the segment.
Third-order effects
- If contract pricing drives netbook sticker prices toward token levels, carriers — not PC makers — become the gatekeepers of entry-level laptop demand, shifting margin from hardware to multi-year data commitments.
The trend: US carriers are absorbing the low-cost laptop into the phone-subsidy model, making netbooks a contract-driven accessory to wireless plans.