It’s official. Verizon (
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announced this week it will start selling Hewlett Packard Mini 1151NR netbooks at its stores. The company joins other players from the technology space, such as AT&T (
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The HP Mini 1151NR will sell for $200 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a new, two-year activation on a Mobile Broadband plan, starting May 17. Customers will receive a mail-in rebate as a debit card, which can be used anywhere debit cards are accepted.
The netbook, which is a less expensive, Internet-optimized mini-laptop, features a 10.1-inch widescreen display and offers access to the Internet and e-mail and will be equipped with 3G access. Service plans start at $40 a month. The netbooks will be sold in retail stories and on the Verizon Wireless
Web site.
The HP Mini looks like this:
As TMC (
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reported this week , netbooks are emerging as the lone
bright spot amid a struggling consumer electronics industry. As U.S. mobile phone growth slows, netbooks will offer companies a new source of revenue, according to a Bloomberg (
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report.
Rivals
AT&T and Nvidia Corp. already has set a high bar for the market. AT&T, for example, sells Acer netbooks starting at $99 with a two-year contract. And in some markets, the company offers low-cost netbooks from makers LG and Dell (
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Apple Inc. is also
rumored to launching its own netbook.
Netbooks appear to be
growing in popularity. Nearly 35 million netbooks are expected to ship this year. That number will rise to 135 million by 2013,
ABI Research reports.
Beyond the netbook, Verizon Wireless updated its data plan to allow subscribers buying the $40 monthly plan up to 250 MB starting May 17. Previously, users’ data capacity was restricted to 50 MB, the company said.
Fierce Broadband Wireless writer Lynette Luna
reported that analysts are positive about Verizon’s data plan changes. The changes "will certainly influence AT&T to rethink and likely move on its own data overage fees and its $39.99 data connect plan usage limit to match," analysts William Ho and Kathryn Weldon said in a research note. They noted that the move shows “the carrier is taking a more aggressive stance in laying the groundwork for more data use.”
