Is the $99 3G Netbook Really Like an MSN Rebate?

Silicon Alley Insider poses quite the interesting question about the latest 3G Netbook “deals”:

More cheap, subsidized 3G netbooks are on the way. Verizon (VZ) Wireless confirms that it will start selling netbooks this year, meaning it’s probably going to match the enticing $99 price that other retailers are selling at.

This is a smart move by the carriers. For a roughly $300 subsidy on the netbook — about the same amount they subsidize smartphones — they get someone locked into a 2-year 3G data contract at around $45-$60 per month. Over the course of two years, that’s $1100 to $1400 in revenue they wouldn’t have necessarily seen. And they get another subscriber to put in their quarterly report to Wall Street, showing that the wireless growth boom still has some steam.

But we can’t help but think back to the last time the computer industry got telecom companies to subsidize their sales. That was during the late 1990s and early 2000s, when dialup ISPs like Microsoft’s MSN offered $400 rebates on new PCs if you signed up for three years of dialup service. Microsoft eventually had to cancel the campaign because it was costing too much money. (And boy were those consumers screwed, stuck on $250-per-year MSN dialup contracts.)

You can read the entire article over at the Business Insider. What do you think? Do you really want a 2-year contract tied to a $400 computer?