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back to article PC World cuts £250 off the price of Apple's MacBook Air

Want a MacBook Air for £949? Pop over to PC World's website and order the skinny Apple and an HSDPA wireless broadband package from carrier 3 and the retailer will knock £250 off the price of the Air. Catches? Well, to get £250 off, you have to pay 3 £35 a month for the next 18 months - a total of £630. There's also a data- …

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  1. Andy Worth

    Wow......

    I can really have a Macbook Air for only just under £1600? Well, that's the real price when you take into account the almost useless subscription you have to pay.

    Nah

    If I was going to buy one (which I won't because they are extortionate) then there's no incentive to take this "deal".

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    3 3G? Ugh

    Well, I've used 3 3G - for just a short while. I didn't enjoy the experience.

    I think I'll purchase my next PC elsewhere.

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  4. Keith T
    Pirate

    'Advertising?'

    Someone not quite getting the point of the article?

    It actually reads -- "with prices like these who the eff would want to go to PC World?

    (MacAirheadbook is almost unusable without an extra bag full of add-ons, we can see where the savings on size are)

    HTH

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ahh I get it

    So the 'Carrier 3', charges 630 quid for 18 months of use at 3GB per month? Which works out at 35 quid a month to transfer up to 3GB / month. Or if you take the 250 as being off the 'Carrier 3' it is (630 - 250) / 18 = 20 quid a month for a transfer of up to 3GB, but the laptop is full price.

    So yeah, I suppose 20 Quid is a bit high. Not much of a deal, and made more confusing by adding in a company with a number as their name :)

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  6. Dan Herd

    Re: Advertising?

    Er, Rik - the tone of this article is hardly praising the offer.

    It's a sucky offer from a consistently sucky company.

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  7. Peter Endean
    Dead Vulture

    @ Rick Hemsley

    See the tariff from 2001, not sure if the prices have gone up since then...

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/01/22/register_tariff/

    -- Pete.

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  8. Richard Kilpatrick
    Thumb Down

    Smart Move

    I think it's a good move pn PC World's part, however...

    I'd have expected that Mr Smith would have been smarter than to fall into the old iPhone-bleating trick of saying "it's really another £630".

    Like an O2 contract with an iPhone, it's a service. It's a service you'd presumably be planning on using, and paying for, regardless. It does not (as Andy says above) make a MacBook Air cost £1600.

    It porbably is a useless service - my own experiences with Three mean they'd have to do some serious bribery to get me to use their service again - but cost of service does not equal cost of product. I know several people who do use Three's current services and actually have very little to complain about - on paper they seem to be trying to compete with T-Mobile on data which can only be a good thing.

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  9. James Dodd

    More and more advertisements from el reg!

    come on... these adverts are extremely boring.

    PC world/dixons group has been doing this offer for a fricking long time. I'm sure you've probably already discussed it before.

    Are you gonna bring this up with every laptop that comes out??

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  10. Bill Fresher
    Alert

    You what?!

    On the 3 website you can get the 3GB a month mobile broadband for £15 a month! Are PC World having a laugh?!

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    £250 loan

    On the 3 website this mobile broadband package costs £15 a month. PC World want £35 a month but will knock £250 off the price of an Airbook. So this is basically a loan for £250 that costs you £20 a month over 18 months... that means they're charging you a massive 43.83% yearly interest on the 'loan'.

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  12. chris jones

    XS20 for £50??

    I'd like to know where you get £50 from for the Packard Bell XS20...

    It shows as £350 on the aforementioned website!

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  13. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    Which tariff?

    Very strange. If you buy direct from 3, you get 3GB per month for £15 with a free modem on an 18 month contract. I wonder which tariff PC World is actually selling. It claims to have 200 SMS included too (well worth the £20 per month alone?). Perhaps you actually get voice minutes too (which you can't use without putting the SIM in a voice handset?)

    Assuming we don't care about SMS or voice minutes, then, .....

    ..... Retail Macbook Air direct from Apple £1199.01 + standard 18 month 3GB contract (modem is free) £270 = £1469.01.

    PC World Macbook Air £949 + Modem + contract £630 = £1579.

    Hmm. Where is PC World's IT angle?

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  14. Bruno Girin
    Thumb Down

    £35 per month?

    So let me get this right, you can get the £250 discount if you take up 3 mobile Broadband Plus for £35 per month? Er... the official price from 3's website (http://www.three.co.uk/personal/products_services_/mobile_broadband_/detail.omp) is £15 a month for Mobile Broadband Plus so they charge you a £20 premium, which amounts to £360 over 18 months. Or in other words, you get shafted to the tune of £110 compared to buying both products separately. Well done PC World!

    For the record, I have 3's mobile broadband lite (the 1GB cap version) and it has proved excellent at letting me get online from trains or hotel rooms. Indeed it's not always very speedy but it's just what I need when I'm on the go and is much cheaper than using some hotels' broadband facilities at £10 per 24 hours.

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  15. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    But it's only £15 a month directly

    http://www.three.co.uk/personal/products_services_/mobile_broadband_/detail.omp

    3GB = £15 per month, available on an 18 month contract with a free dongle

    So spend £360 extra, to save £250 on the laptop. Brilliant.

    Paris cos she's good (with) figures

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  16. Jan Hargreaves
    Joke

    re: keith t

    "MacAirheadbook"

    hahaha thats priceless. and i adore macs, but thats so funny.

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  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Chris Jones

    Here:

    http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/editorial/3-broadband

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  18. marc
    Dead Vulture

    *shock* another anti DSGi article

    Is this a new site or a place for bad journalists to air their rants?

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  19. Paul
    Thumb Down

    The real catch...

    ...is you have to deal with Pissy World.

    Wonder how much they want for the extended warranty on that "deal"? (Are they still trying to force-feed those warranties to everyone who buys even the cheapest piece of hardware these days?)

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  20. Danny Thompson

    Cost of funding

    Jeepers! That is a tad expensive in terms of a loan of £250. It is an interesting bit of marketing spin by PC World. 3 aren't going to say no. But when looking at DSGi these days, whats in it for the customer? Not very much it seems. A company in terminal decline - anyone remember Rumbelows? They went the same way, the same way. I digress.

    Well good luck to PC World if they can sell very many of these.

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