Free laptop offers
It was the biggest news in mobile broadband in 2008, and it looks set to continue unabated into 2009. The popularity of free laptop offers with mobile broadband packages has been unparalleled, with almost everyone surprised by the scale of the success of these offers.
With mobile broadband identified as a potential 'growth market', providers have been almost falling over themselves to offer extras and freebies to convince customers to take their service. The whole free laptop thing all started back in 2007 when Carphone Warehouse began offering free laptop with its home broadband package, and it has snowballed so much that nearly every mobile broadband supplier is offering free laptops with one or other of their mobile broadband deals.
The deal works for everyone - suppliers get more customers; mobile broadband as a whole gets more subscribers, which contributes to investment in networks and moves towards better service; and you, the consumer, get a shiny new laptop.
What's great about free laptop offers
Let's face it, it's not all that often that someone wants to give you a free laptop, is it? With the country now officially in recession, there is less and less excuse for buying expensive consumer goods like laptops - but that's where these free laptop offers come in. While you should be under no illusion that there is still a cost involved, with these deals you get the laptop at a heavily discounted price, and not only that but you can spread the cost as well!
Secondly, we're not talking nasty old weight-of-a-house-brick, 512Mb of RAM and a battery that lasts fifteen minutes laptops. The technology up for grabs with these free laptop offers is great – for instance we defy anyone not to covet the Dell Inspiron Mini Netbook that Vodafone is currently bundling with one of its mobile broadband deals - it's about the size of a paperback book, making mobile broadband truly mobile. And the retail prices of these laptops alone tell you all you need to know - T-Mobile's offering, the Asus Eee PC retails at around £250.
And well, if you want to get online on the move you're going to need a laptop. If you don't already have one, or you're in serious need of an upgrade, free laptop offers are a fantastic way to get online on the move, in one easy step.
Things to watch out for with free laptop offers
The first major disadvantage of these free laptop offers is that, well, they're not free. You will always pay more for a mobile broadband deal which offers a free laptop than you would for the equivalent deal without the goodies. Also, you might be required to sign up to a longer contract. Still, like we said already, it is cheaper and it does spread the cost - just make sure you add up how much extra you're paying so you know exactly how good a deal you're getting. You can work out how much you're paying for the laptop by working out the total price of a contract without the laptop and comparing it to the total price of a contract with the laptop, over the life of the contract, be it 12, 18 or 24 months.
So having established that you really are getting a good deal with your chosen free laptop offer, take a closer look at the laptop. Is it what you'd choose if you could pick any laptop? Does it offer all the things you need? Is the screen big enough, is it portable enough, does it have sufficient processing power, memory, and battery life? It's no good getting a free laptop if you get it home to discover you hate using it because the screen is too small or it doesn’t have enough memory.
Lastly, don't forget to check out the mobile broadband that comes with your free laptop offer (or maybe that's the other way around?). Again, you're not getting such great value for money if the laptop's perfect for you, but the mobile broadband package is all wrong or the network coverage in your area is poor.
All things considered, though, it's no coincidence that free laptop offers have turned out to be as popular as they are. It's a fantastic incentive, and as long as you are sensible in your decision making, and compare all the options to make sure you're getting the best that's on offer, you can finish up getting a great deal.
