Nokia Booklet 3G slips to $199 on contract 'through the holidays'
By Darren Murph 
posted December 12th 2009 9:39PM
posted December 12th 2009 9:39PM
[Thanks, Hary]
posted December 12th 2009 9:39PM
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Discount the service and maybe someone will take a second look.
@Evan: Exactly! Hello, providers? MUST you have these outrageous monthly rates for data? Maybe tiered plans are the only way to make them accessible to more people?
I am glad, finally you posted this 14 hrs after tipping. I was just about to tip again.
who needs a smartphone when you could get this? same price on contract.
@AndroidRokz Why not buy a smart phone and then buy a netbook of your choice, then tether the netbook to your phone?
@AndroidRokz
I'm sorry Android, but we humans don't have as big pockets as you... Also our torsos don't open up to reveal a secret compartment with infinite space like yours or Bender's
@AndroidRokz
ARM is superior to x86. I use my Droid for irc because it uses hardly any power and leaving it on all the time is fine. My laptop? It's so inefficient it has to have a /fan/. This is almost 2010. That's pathetic.
@ethana2 This does not have a fan + for years you've been able to use the Nokia software to send messages and make calls directly from the pc! So theoretically he's right that this can be used as a smart"phone", however ill pass on giving up on a phone. Mainly due to the the portability and convenience offered by a pocketable device :).
@AndroidRokz If you're prepared sit down, start up Windows 7 and get online if you want to reserve a table on OpenTable, or pull it out on the sidewalk to check your calender, leave it on all the time to purchase and listen to music, and carry the 2.8 pound machine wherever you go, including all business, social and family events, then certainly you would be justified in buying the Booklet over a smartphone.
AT&T? Don't data users want to get out of AT&T?
@Godfather: No, not all AT&T users. Just their iPhone users.
@Godfather
Its a separate plan from your cellphone, so you'll have to pay for a separate plan in addition to your phone. What's worse its bandwidth capped.
Right now, its
$35/month for a 200MB capped plan
$60/month for a 5GB capped plan
At 200MB-5GB this plan is close to useless except for very casual browsing. Personally speaking, I used to be on AT&T's Data Connect plan and the coverage and speed was unacceptable.
I move that up front costs are very low on the priority list when you are paying 70-100 dollars a month to use whatever it is.
Over the required 2 year contract, plus the $199, it's actually a little under $1700. Not a bad deal if you were already planning on getting a 24 month data contract. MSRP is $599 so over 24 months AT&T is making 80% profit on you every month. If they fully subsidized the device they'd still be making about 60% profit.
Data service in North America is so ridiculously overpriced that everytime I see an advertisement it manages to insult me on principle. And that does not even take into consideration the contract lock-in.
Should they offer any netbook or smartphone for $0*, it would not be newsworthy. Charging $200 for a lame netbook and saying you got a $600 device is ridiculous. Just like the iPhone, the build cost on these things is less than what the consumer pays. The carrier doesn't care about having to pay a subsidy because it helps them justify contracts. The manufacturer is free to charge as much as they want specifically because the consumer never sees that price.
This is why the Google Phone is a big deal, they can cut their profit margin to "only 10%" and utterly demolish what I see as institutionalized wallet rape. Either the manufacturer can't do 250% profit markup, or the carrier can't charge a 4000% data markup.
Manufacturers will get hit first even though they're not being as greedy, but in the long run carriers will have lost the only justification to push contracts and high prices.
@Akhen hear hear
@Akhen GUYS keep in mind at radioshack with the two year contract they carry the 3g netbooks and 3g notebooks for much cheaper than att/bestbuy they start with free netbooks all the way to models that are 100$ still much cheaper than all the other competitors so if your looking for anything besides the nokia id check out radioshack
Isn't it Ironic that Nokia isn't exactly a household name worldwide for their notebooks, and is well known world wide with the exception of the U.S for their cell phone business and yet a carrier will pick up its netbook and not the N900 which could probably push more pixels in a game and web pages/apps at the same time than this netbook will, at least with the stock OS and memory?
@Eternity
Nokia hasn't been competitive in the SmartPhone market recently. Maybe the N900 will change that in time but, as of now, they're trying to get in on the ground floor of subsidized computers instead where there's not nearly as much competition.
@(Unverified) Even though the internals may be par for the course/underwhelming from a techie perspective, anyone who's played with the machine agree's that it is a beautiful computer and on Nokia's end they got a lot right.
Since its gen 1, I hope they build on it since people like me would love to have a machine that looks and performs this good (battery, connectivity, ergonomics etc) with internals that do not get bogged down every two hours. Since its an atom: no thanks!
@Eternity Well the OS can be upgraded; the worse is the 1GB of soldered non-upgradeable RAM. Right now I'm using 95% RAM and it's a fresh boot. In this case, the SD card for ReadyBoost actually helps a lot.
@ran
I'd rather buy an N900 and use the TV out. Considering it is probably more powerful than this netbook in real world usage.
Dont mind if i do
"What honey? No i'm buying this for my brother, not me!"
Silly wife
@Karate Tortoise Step 1: Pray you have a wife.
Step 2: Clear your internet history.
Step 3: Hope she (or he if thats the way you like it), does not read Engadget.
Step 4: Come up with a good alibi.
Your welcome :P.
Now if only we had att 3G in the usa
Nice work with the comments Engadget, much better this way.
Now all we need is editing capabilities and we're good.
@DangerRabbit What did they change?
@MrAffrox
Now all the reply drawers are opened by default, saves lots time and goes back kinda to how it used to be before the site overhaul, its definitely an improvement.
I bought one at full MSRP (599). I returned the netbook last week because I wanted to wait for intel's next chip to be launched and flash performance was horrible. However, at $199, I think this device is worth it. They are selling a JooJoo that does not run any type of an OS for $499. I just wished flash 10.1 beta worked on it, since Hulu in full screen mode does not work very well. Why would they put an HDMI port on a device without making sure that Flash performance was good. This is a very well built product that reminds me of my Macbook. It does not feel like a plastic toy as some of the other notbooks look and feel like.
Well, another Nokia's failure... unfortunately, but predicted.
thats ridiculously cheap
If only Hary's submission was worthy of a pic of that netbook sitting on top of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix instead of some no-name but equally thick and equally blue-covered book. Sigh.
Being picky here, you've typed "through the holidays," when it should be "through the holidays",
If they made this $99 dollars with the 2 year data contract, this thing will fly of the shelves.
how much is att's etf? legit may be worth it to get it at 199 and cancel service
Now reduce the retail by $200 and I will consider
@ artshark ETF is $175. So your net will be $375. However, you may have to pay an an activation fee and at least go into the contract for 30 days (to do the ETF - otherwise, it's just a remorse return and you may have to return the product).
So, let me see (I thought about doing this as well). $199 (unit) +$175 (ETF) + $36 (Activation) + $60 (30 day monthly prorated Laptop Connect) = about $470 before taxes...so you probably make out at least $100 or so bucks cheaper than the $599 list (but still locked to AT&T).
ON A DIFFERENT NOTE....
I just got back from Best Buy and they price matched my device (I love it) and I got my $109 back. And then went to Target to get DJ Hero for $88. Sweet.
@squeeze5590 The $175 EFT is for their smartphone plans right?
I heard they are selling netbooks on data plans with differing Toc's.
Maybe im wrong but the way US Telco's gouge consumers, wont be surprised if rates are higher for this.
Also, does the $599/Best-buy version come with Home Premium like everywhere else in the world or are you stuck with Starter like the AT&T version?
@Munk It's not Verizon; ETF is the same.
And the $599 version and the contract version are the same (basically when you buy the computer, they ask if you want the data service or not after they get the machine, which is after they retrieve the machine). I don't think they even lock the card to AT&T; I called AT&T for the unlock code (since I bought it for $599) and they told me that couldn't find a unlock code in their system for the computer, so my assumption would be it's not locked?
So yes at $199, it would be cheaper than retail. $199(computer)+$175(ETF)+$60(first month)+$36(Activation)+18%(tax on cell phone plans)+Tax on the device. You're looking at around $100 off I guess. Actually at the $299 price it would just be around the same if you buy it on contract [and cancel] or full price.
From what I am reading on the specs, it is a basic netbook running Windows 7 starter. They added in a 3G card, A-GPS and a 16 cell battery- and they slapped a 'Nokia' logo on it. All this for 'only' $600 retail or $200 with a 2 year contract with a 3G data plan... That seems way overpriced for a cheap-ass netbook.
If I was looking for something like this, I would rather get a $300 netbook and pickup a MiFi card; At last I won't be stuck with a sub-par netbook that is tied to a carrier contract when something worthwhile comes out in 3-6 months...
"Of course, there's a good chance you'll regret the decision to jump on this when the next-generation Atom hits at CES (which is happening, right Intel?)" Give it a damn break...
If we go this way we never buy any gadget cos something better will be "jusr around the corner". If this is the thought of the author of this post, then the purpose of a Gadget blog disappear. Lets just wait until we die so we can finally get the latest tech.
I bet if it would be an iPhone you would be marketing like crazy here...