Warning this article may contain opinions of the author that you and iTWire don't necessarily agree with. Don't let them get away with it - have your say with a comment!

No. 1 Story

Technology reinforces generation gap

If you believe that technology could be bridging the generation gap, think again. According to Deloitte’s first State of the Media report it’s as stark as ever.

read more

News flash! A laptop is not a mobile phone

Opinion and Analysis

This may come as a shock to Australia's dominant telco Telstra or any other carrier that tries to sell a laptop the same way they sell mobile phones. It can't be done and there's any number of reasons why.

Looking at Telstra's recently announced $0 up front laptop bundled with its Next G mobile broadband deal, it's easy to see why the telco is tentatively dipping its toe in the water with a limited time offer, to a limited market and a limited price range. The offer expires June 30, is only available to business customers and it only applies to laptops up to $700, which cuts out most decently configured laptop on the market.

The fact of the matter is the Telstra $0 laptop deal is clearly self-defeating. These days if anybody who has a business can't stump up with $700, forget Flexirent they could simply buy it on their credit card. Even at the whopping 20.74% that some banks charge for credit card purchases, they could pay a $700 laptop off at $65 a month over 12 months. Vodafone offers a 5GB mobile broadband plan for $39 a month.

Thus, total cost per month for a $700 laptop purchased by a high interest credit card with a 5GB Vodafone mobile broadband plan is $104 a month for a year, after which the laptop will be paid for. Then the ongoing cost of the data plan will be just $39 a month.

By comparison, $0 upfront laptop from Telstra with a 1GB mobile broadband plan will cost $99 month over three years. Bearing in mind that most business users that need a laptop for mobile broadband use will require significantly more bandwidth than 1GB, at 25c per additional MB, the $0 upfront mobile broadband laptop could end up costing $7000 or even more over three years under Telstra's plan.

Obviously, any business owners who do their sums will simply dismiss the Telstra $0 laptop as not being cost effective. However, there's another very good reason why this plan is doomed to failure. CONTINUED