subject: Do free laptops exist any more? [print this page] Do free laptops exist any more? Do free laptops exist any more?
If you're smart - and, dear reader, I'm quite sure you are - then you'll have spluttered at the very temerity of this question.
'Do they exist any more?' You'll say, wiping spittle off your tie, surreptitiously and ever so politely, with one hand, 'did they ever?'
Well, no. Laptops were never free to roam around the countryside in glistening silver herds, going on whichever websites they like.
They weren't free in the sense of the freedoms of man. They weren't even free as in free beer, no matter what certain companies would have us believe.
I refer, of course, to the marketing trick of offering a free laptop with mobile broadband: build in the price of the laptop deal to the monthly price and not only are you making money as a laptop retailer you're potentially got a customer hooked on internet on the go, no bad thing for business.
Clearly such deals used to exist and they still do, so what's with the question?
The answer to that is that while, in theory, free laptop deals still exist - by which we mean those deals in which the laptop cost is built into the price each month - look a little closer and you'll notice some changes.
The number of broadband deals that involve an upfront fee has risen of late and that adds to the cost of the so-called free or subsidised laptop.
In addition, compare the price of the laptop and broadband as two separate products and compare it to the cost of the deal overall and the price difference is sometimes so high that it's effectively as if the consumer has paid with the products using a high interest loan.
When asking questions such as is plusnet any good we are forced to wonder whether our expectation meet what is actually being meted out by a company.
The same applies here: has the 'free laptop deal', in all its mealy mouthed glory become, while we were looking away for a moment, even more mealy mouthed?
More research on the subject is clearly necessary but, in the mean time, consumers should be informed that what they previously thought was just a misleading deal sometimes borders on the bad.
Checking out laptop prices - remembering to keep in mind the specific specifications mentioned by the mobile broaband provider - can help as can checking out the normal cost for the usage that is allocated per month.
