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Orange to Offer Subsidized MacBooks With Mobile Broadband Contracts in UK?
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I know I said this years ago, but what I would like to see is Apple make internal provision for activating 3G/4G wireless ala an Airport card model or a sim or some such, so dongles and PC cards need not be used, and disrupt the form factor of the device. Ugly PC's have been doing this for years.
3rd party dongles have been available for a while with mixed results on drivers.
Rocketman
3rd party dongles have been available for a while with mixed results on drivers.
Rocketman
Of course it makes sense. Everyone in the UK is offering free laptops with wireless Internet access. You get a little USB key that you plug into the laptop, and sign a contract for two years. For a laptop under £400, the phone company makes so much many on the contract, they can afford to give you the laptop for free.
So if they can give you a £400 laptop for free, they can give you a white MacBook costing £719 for a £319 payment.
For a perspective on the price: O2 sells the external USB modem for £30, and then you can pay for wireless access pay-as-you-go for two days, one week, or one month for £15.
Don't you guys over there get FREE iPhones with the more expensive plans?
Here, AT&T is more than happy to still charge you for the phone...
The iPhone is "free" if you take out an 18 month contract for £44.05 (8Gb model) or £73.41 (16Gb model) per month.
Sadly "free" is never actually free in the mobile phone world - they get you one way or another.
Personally I prefer to pay up front and take out a pay as you go contract.
I could be wrong, but I don't see what this has to do with Apple. Orange are merely stocking the MacBook and selling it on in their own way, with a contract. And it's likely to be the £719 WhiteBook on offer.
Non Sequitor
Subsidizing Macbooks in the UK (or anywhere else for that matter) doesn't seem to me to be a sustainable business model for either Apple, Orange, AT&T, or anyone else, given the terrible economy.
Although, I might revisit my opinion if someone like COMCAST decided to waste revenue subsidizing say ... a Mac Pro.
Subsidizing Macbooks in the UK (or anywhere else for that matter) doesn't seem to me to be a sustainable business model for either Apple, Orange, AT&T, or anyone else, given the terrible economy.
Although, I might revisit my opinion if someone like COMCAST decided to waste revenue subsidizing say ... a Mac Pro.
'Subsidizing' is a nice word, but it doesn't mean a whole lot if you end up paying more and they end up making more.
Doesn't really matter though, buying a laptop/phone/etc through a contract isn't the only way to get these products, options are always good.
Subsidizing Macbooks in the UK (or anywhere else for that matter) doesn't seem to me to be a sustainable business model for either Apple, Orange, AT&T, or anyone else, given the terrible economy.
Although, I might revisit my opinion if someone like COMCAST decided to waste revenue subsidizing say ... a Mac Pro.
the wrong bit in the equation is calling this business model "subsidizing". they're selling a 2 year contract. nothing subsidized there.
i understand why the companies want to call what they are doing "subsidizing". independent media should stop using this term already.
it's contract with upfront payment + monthly payments.
Yeah, me too. Problem is o2 UK tell me they don't support email to your phone on PAYG, so I've had to work around this slight issue. Otherwise I'm happy knowing that the phone is mine and I can pay what I need to pay in terms of topping up with credit.
Looking forward to iPhone 3.0 by the way...
I wonder how this ties in with the tethering function seen in 3.0??
That's the big question.
I think tethering over the iPhone with unlimited downloads, charged at, say £10 a month extra, could be the end of the 3G dongle.
But if Orange pitched the Macbook at, say £50 a month for two years with a 3G dongle, how many people would choose that over the iPhone?
No such thing as a low budget Macbook. $99 is possible but improbable. Anetbook can cost $600 and be subsidized, resulting in a $99 price for the user.
If they offered a mac tablet/netbook for $99 with 2 year contract, I'm taking it. Of course, I have to wait til June when my current iphone deal is done.
Bring it on
Well ... as a comparison, Dell was running a promotion on their Mobile Broadband enabled Mini9's with bundled service from AT&T (built in 3G card, same one Vodaphone is using in the UK). Normally you'd pay ~$500-600 for the model they were offering with the promotion. The promotion brought the price down to $200 but required a 2 year contract @$60 a month.
I don't see Apple offering a better deal, if anything I see them charging a lot more for a lot less (hardware wise), which is exactly the opposite of the Netbook market (and why, while I love OSX, I decided the new Mini and Air were just too much for too little).
What crap?
Lots of people are pretty happy with the choice of Netbooks out there right now. Heck, quite a lot of them have even had OSX installed on them. Yes, multi-touch is "nice" but somehow we managed to survive and use portables before it existed. As for it being "nice", yeah, Apple usually gets that part right, then they overcharge you for the experience and sour the taste.
Don't you guys over there get FREE iPhones with the more expensive plans?
Here, AT&T is more than happy to still charge you for the phone...
Aye, I actually spat out my drink when I saw what AT&T were hoping to charge you for contract-free iPhones.
Mobile reports that UK mobile provider Orange is in final negotiations to offer heavily subsidized MacBooks to customers signing up for two-year mobile broadband contracts.Rumors of subsidized notebooks have been increasing lately, with an AT&T source recently hinting at the possibility of a $99 netbook launching this summer with the implication that it may be an Apple product.
Article Link: Orange to Offer Subsidized MacBooks With Mobile Broadband Contracts in UK?
DOngles are one thing, but perhaps Apple could 'update' the macbooks to have it build in? , and while we're on it, build in a simcard slot, so that we can use it with a bluetooth headset, and make phone calls while working on a spreadsheet, surf the net , play in garageband etc all from the same device (or would that eat away potential iPhone customers...)
Sounds great except for the dongle. Apple, get with it already and allow for cards INSIDE the laptops! If Dell can do it, you certainly can!
When have Apple done what people wanted?
As for the orange deal if the 2 year contract is £30 per month, the orange mobile broadband probably would be £10 of that and the rest could go to sub the MacBook (£700 version). Orange could probably get the white MB for £600 and sell it subbed for £300.
No, this is not significant in any way. In contrast to the iPhone anyone can buy MacBooks and any company can buy them in large quantities. This includes mobile operators and retailers as well.
For example MediaMarkt (a large electronics retailer in Germany) offers _any_ notebook for 400 less and gives you a free 3G USB stick if you sign a 24 monts 3G data contract (about 35 / month). This includes Apple notebooks. You can have a white MacBook for 549 or something in this case.
The contracts are usually on Vodafone which is not the iPhone carrier in Germany. Other Apple retailers like Gravis had similar offers in the past.
Really nothing special, I think...
Christian
actually, subsidized laptops are very common over here because of our extensive turbo 3g network.
here is a page with a few examples:
http://www.phonehouse.se/StartPage/StartPage.aspx?menuid=139347&startMode=Private
Considering Currys are offering a free laptop or £500 off more expensive ones (link), which seems to cover MacBooks instore (unless all three stores I've seen the offer in are mislabelled (which isn't unlikely considering it's Currys)), it's quite likely we'll see such a subsidised offer.
However, Orange aren't normally even on the radar for someone looking in to mobile broadband, so I doubt it would make much of a difference, considering their utterly crap customer offerings.
However, Orange aren't normally even on the radar for someone looking in to mobile broadband, so I doubt it would make much of a difference, considering their utterly crap customer offerings.
In Switzerland they offer subsidized MacBook's and MacBook Pro's for a while now.
You have the choice of which laptop you want, but its actually with a 3G internet key contract, a minimum of 2 year contract.
A macbook 2.4 ghz is offered for as low as 104 chf (68) a month (24 months) and a macbook pro starts at 140chf (91) a month.. and you can have a new laptop every 2 year.
The monthly price depends on different 3g contracts and different data plans it can cost more, but overall it's a pretty good leasing type of deal, you don't have interest % it's just the price of the laptop divided by 24 + the data plan you choose.
You have the choice of which laptop you want, but its actually with a 3G internet key contract, a minimum of 2 year contract.
A macbook 2.4 ghz is offered for as low as 104 chf (68) a month (24 months) and a macbook pro starts at 140chf (91) a month.. and you can have a new laptop every 2 year.
The monthly price depends on different 3g contracts and different data plans it can cost more, but overall it's a pretty good leasing type of deal, you don't have interest % it's just the price of the laptop divided by 24 + the data plan you choose.