David Fiske A subtle blend of affiliate marketing and web development

Yesterday I saw an advert for a free laptop at PC World and today I've seen a free laptop at Carphone Warehouse. What's interesting about the Carphone Warehouse offer is that you have to sign up for AOL. Seems weird being that CPWH are the same group as Talk Talk!
 
Anyhow, here's the deal:

Sign up to AOL for 2 years at £19.99 a month, pay £14.99 for laptop delivery and you could be the proud owner of a Dell laptop. As laptops go, it's not the best but it'll do for surfing and the like. As for broadband, it's up to 8 Meg, a 40GB download limit, and has a free wireless router bundled in. CPWH reckon the value of the freebies is £500 and given that a 24 month contract costs £494.75 (inc P&P), it seems like they are paying you to take a laptop, router and broadband off their hands.

It would have con plastered over it if it wasn't CPWH and AOL, to mighty large names.

PC World is partnering with Orange for their offer. The basic laptop is dire and I wouldn't take that from them even if they were paying me. You can pay anywhere up to £200 to get a better deal but the brands aren't as good as Dell (in my opinion).

As for Internet, cry now! Up to 2 meg with a 2GB download limit. They have thrown in a wired modem. The cost for the basic package is £14.99 a month with the first three months half price. Total cost for comparison is £337.26 (and you collect the laptop yourself).

I like where these companies are going. Prices are now more or less similar amongst the bigger ISPs and differentiation is key. Talk Talk's free broadband promise seemed to have a negative brand impact so it's understandable why CPWH would partner with a name with more credentials. PC World's offer is reasonable expect for the poor equipment and minuscule data allowance on the broadband.

Create a broadband package with up to 8 meg download speed, give it unlimited downloads (fair usage applies - borrow this from Tiscali as it seems to be OK for me!), tag on a free laptop with the same specs as the Dell being given away by CPWH, whack in a free wireless router and slap on a 12 month minimum contract. Call it the best broadband package ever and release it to the market. It'll be eaten alive.