Free Dell Notebooks with AOL Broadband
July 20, 2007 | by Geoff Duncan
UK mobile phone dealer Carphone Warehouse is offering a free Dell notebook computer to anyone who signs up for AOL Broadband.
The UK mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse has annoucned a plan whereby consumers who sign up for two years of Internet access via AOL Broadband will get a coupon for a free Dell Inspiron notebook computer. The move is designed to bring new customers to the increasingly-saturated broadband market, and counters a similar promotion being run by mobile operator Orange UK.
Carphone Warehouse's deal with AOL Broadband costs subscribers £19.99 a month (a little over $40 US); with a two year commitment, consumers would pay a total of £479.76 (just over $985 US) for two years of broadband service and a notebook to go with it. The offer isn't expected to appeal to technologically hip who are already using broadband and mobile services; instead, its' designed to bring new customers and older consumers to the market—and while the companies may not be making much money on this deal, these are the types of consumers who tend to be very loyal over time.
The Dell Inspiron notebook offered in the deal runs on an Intel Celeron 540 processor, offers a 15.4-inch display, and comes with Windows Vista Home Basic, 1 GB of RAM, an 80 GB hard drive, an 8× DVD burner, and 802.11 Wi-Fi wireless connectivity. Customers will need to pay a £14.88 delivery fee for the notebook, and can choose to pay for add-ons and upgrades to the system.
The move marks another departure for Dell, which traditionally has only sold computers directly to customers, eschewing traditional retail channels. However, with the return of foundder Michael Dell, the company has begun offering systems through retailers as a way to rebuild its declining market share. Recently Dell began selling entry-level systems through mega-retailer Wal-Mart.
Post Your Comment...Comments
Raymond Banocia on Sep 5th, 2007 at 8:54 AM:
Why free?I'm confuse?how can i get this?
craig on Sep 6th, 2007 at 9:56 AM:
This is a huge con. I keep on seeing these ever increasing contract terms getting bigger and bigger. AOL arn't up to scratch with their connection speeds as their contention ratios (yes I read all the small print!) are approx 50:1 which means during peaks times such as 6pm everyday, you will not be getting 8Mbps speeds. Try a decent provider, Zen for example have contention ratios of 1:1 which means you always have the bandwidth you are paying for and it isn't shared over another 50 people. The laptop is crap too so you are buying 8mbps of which you will see approx 1mbps (see www.speedtest.net) which will cost you the consumer £22 a month for - ridiculous!
Joseph Schwarz on Oct 25th, 2007 at 3:49 PM:
I have been an AOL customer for a few years and have noticed that the broadband speed has dramatically slowed since Talk Talk bought it over. Sometimes it is more akin to dial-up.
Maria Paragas on Nov 21st, 2007 at 5:10 AM:
Just to asked you, when is my computer will be arriving, please let me know.
ethan on Feb 17th, 2008 at 4:55 PM:
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MJ on Sep 3rd, 2007 at 2:15 AM:
Have just received confirmation that we qualify for this offer, we are existing AOL customers, however, we are outside of a minimum contract so meet the criteria. Our confirmation states that they can supply broadband only to us for £39.99 per month. Funny, we only pay £17.99 a month now. The original offer suggested it would cost £19.99 per month, two-year contract. This would have mean't we'd be paying an extra £48 over the two years for the free laptop. As it is, we'd be looking at an extra £22 per month to get the same service as we get now, which equates to over £500 for the two years, to qualify for a 'free' laptop that isn't even worth that much. The offer originally sounded good but proves to be a big con.