Radio Shack and laptop maker Acer teamed up to make laptops more affordable this holiday season by offering the Acer Aspire One for just $99. When a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is, and this is no exception.
While the Acer Aspire One will retail for a scant $99, customers are forced to purchase a built-in 3G card from AT&T and pony up for the data plan as well, to the tune of $60 a month for two years. That means that at the end of the two-year agreement with AT&T, customers will have actually thrown down $1,539.
That's $99 dollars for the Acer Aspire One notebook and a whopping $1,440 for AT&T's 3G capabilities and data plan over the course of the contract.
Acer and Radio Shack are doing something right though: offering a solid product for a low price. It's not a bad gimmick to get customers coming into the store thinking about purchasing a new notebook at a time when the percentage of potential customers in the market for a new laptop has dipped.
The only problem is that $1,440 albatross that AT&T is hanging around the neck of the Acer Aspire One. Sure, that cost is broken down into $60 increments over the course of two years, but marketing a notebook with nearly $1,500 in hidden costs seems suspicious.
Of course there are a few other options instead of going with the Acer Aspire One and AT&T's $60-a-month contract. Customers could pay more up front for a Dell, HP, Apple or other laptop, and then pay for an Internet connection at home. A mobile broadband card is another avenue.
Or, for customers who are more concerned with being mobile, they could choose to accept whatever fee AT&T finally decides to attach to the privilege of tethering an iPhone to a laptop in order to get a 3G or Wi-Fi connection.
No matter what, there are going to be hidden costs attached to purchasing a laptop and getting it hooked up to the Web. It's just a matter of picking your poison. And getting a brand-new notebook for $99 isn't such a terrible proposition, all things considered.
