Netbook for English Trainers Campaign: More mobility and flexibility

[Torsten]

When you travel to a customer's site to teach English or give a presentation it comes in very handy to take a laptop with Internet connection with you. Since laptops or notebooks tend to be rather bulky and heavy, you should opt for a so called 'netbook' (a subnotebook or mini laptop).

Currently the package price for the device (an Acer Aspire one A150X-3G, a Netbook LG X110, an EEE or a Dell Inspiron Mini 9) plus UMTS flatrate is about EUR 25 per month provided you sign a two year contract.

Now, if we organize a group of potential customers I'm sure we can negotiate even better conditions.

Let me know what you think.
Many thanks,
Torsten
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[Yankee]

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If you want your trainers using these things in courses they do for you, I think you ought to provide them, Torsten.
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[Torsten]

Trainers don't do those course for 'me', Amy but thanks for your constructive ideas anyway. What really appreciate about your approach is that you always focus on the positive side of a situation and see the advantages of a new idea rather than the drawbacks. That's probably the reason why your are so successful and dynamic.
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[Yankee]

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If you provide the tools you want your trainers to use, I think that would be very advantageous for the trainers, you and the students alike, Torsten.

There's really no reason to be unhappy about my suggestion. It was just my opinion, but you don't seem to have been able to see the advantages in it that I see. You've talked about all the disadvantages of the Aldi netbook and called it a "bad joke". Presumably you've now found some netbooks that you do not think are bad jokes.

I can see the potential advantage in having a gadget such as a netbook (just as I did in the other thread), and I can also see the advantage in your being able to advertise to your customers that all of your trainers come similarly equipped.
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[Torsten]

As I said in that thread, the netbook offered by Aldi is a bad joke because it doesn't come with an Internet connection. A netbook without an Internet connection is not a netbook, it's just a small laptop.
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[Scott Graham]

Hi Torsten,
Its sounds good idea and a reasonable deal. I think we could all benefit from this, so I would like to voice my interest and look forward to more details.
Scott Graham
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[Torsten]

Hi Scott and everyone,

Here is an offer from T-Mobile for business people (self-employed or free lance): LG X110 e Netbook or Acer Aspire One A150X (both with 10" TFT displays) for 0,84 EUR per day plus VAT. This price includes a UMTS flat rate. (web flatrate "web n walk L" for 29,37 Euro per month plus VAT). The minimum contract period is 24 months.

Please let me know what you think.
Many thanks,
Torsten
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[Stew.t.]

hi Torsten

I think it would be great if cafes, more eateries, companies and the like in Germany had hotspots then the netbook I have would come in even more handy. But even ome of the colleges Iw work at don´t have hotspots. Why is there such a lack here do you think?

cheers stew.t.
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[Torsten]

Hi Stew,

That's a very good question which I discussed with some of people at T-Mobile and they told me that German Internet providers are heavily promoting UMTS which is more available and easy to use than WLAN/Wi-Fi technology.

Let's say you are traveling on the motorway and want to stop to check your email or any other information on the web. There is no hotspot nearby so what do you do? You just open your netbook and go online. It's pretty much like using a mobile phone. Why would you want to make yourself depend on the availability of hotspots which you usually need access details for.

Let's say you want to give an online presentation at a customer's site. Why would you want to ask them for their hotspot details when you can use your highspeed UMTS connection without having to dispose your laptop to their Intranet?

I think in the US WLAN/HotSpot/WiFi technology is more popular because the US has many rural areas where it will be difficult to provide sufficient UMTS coverage. Germany is different in that respect. In a couple of years we will have 99% UMTS coverage just as we have 99% G2 coverage now. That's impossible to achieve with hotspot technology since you always need to be inside a building in order to hook up to the Internet through WLAN.
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[Stew.t.]

hi

How did it go with our netbook issues?

Had one for a few mths, trading it in for a ipod touch. Was a great little machine though.
Stream lined apps and so compact. Also learned Linux xandra, to me a new OS system.
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[Torsten]

Hi Stew,

What do you make of the new Google phone? So far it's only available in the US but sales in Germany are going to start soon. Maybe next year Google is also going to start offering their own netbooks which will be running on Android. I don't think it could get any better than that...
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