AT&T, Lenovo and Ericsson team up for cheaper 3G laptops
By Donald Melanson 
posted October 30th 2008 2:26PM
posted October 30th 2008 2:26PM
Lenovo first announced a 3G add-on from AT&T and Ericsson for some of its laptops a few months ago, but it's now out there tooting its mobile broadband horn once again, and saying that the three companies are now making the option even cheaper and more widely available. According to Lenovo, the built-in 3G option is now available in all three of its SL series ThinkPads, as well as every single model in its T and X series and, what's more, it's also now $150 cheaper than before, or about the same price as an equivalent non-3G-equipped laptop. Of course, you will have to sign up for AT&T's DataConnect service, but the carrier is at least throwing in 30 days of free service to help ease you in.
The problem isn't with the chipset makers here. Its the card makers. The actual chipsets themselves aren't THAT much more expensive than WIFI or WIMAX chipsets, its the actual card manufacturers that are bumping up the prices (I.E. the people who stick all the chips on a USB, PCI, PCMCIA card or whatnot).
So with ericsson now up for this, things look good for lenovo laptops.
We just began ordering X301s with this option. My boss was happy when I sent him this. Our CDW rep, on the other hand... not so much, as we made him redo all his quotes.
I'm Bill Curtis, and I just found the internet.
I have an idea for how Lenovo could make cheaper laptops: make the enter key black like the other keys! Alright, it'll probably only save a penny per laptop, but the laptops will look nicer.
level of productivity increased = 0
The blue enter key on the keyboard will never be removed. It is part of the ThinkPad identity now, just like the red TrackPoint nub.
Why would you saddle your computer with built-in networking that's tied to one provider?
When you find out how shifty the coverage is and want to switch, you have to take your computer apart and install a new board?