Dell is running what seems to be a pretty good promo to get the Mini 9 in the hands of consumers at a cheaper price. Apparently Dell is offering this ‘deal’ for a very short period of time, as announced on their blog:
If you can wait until 6 a.m. Central tomorrow, Sept. 5, you’ll be able to get a Mini for only $99 with the purchase of a Studio 15, XPS M1530 or XPS M1330 laptop through 6 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9 (U.S. only).
Sounds great right? Well all is not always clear when it comes to marketing. Engadget has pointed out that the prices for the associated computers that one must buy to get the Mini 9 for $99, have been bumped up to the point that you are paying nearly the same price as buying a Mini 9 by itself. They compared Dell’s Fall deals page prices to those that are promoted with the $99 Mini deal, and it seems as though you’ll be paying $300-$400 more on the promo page than on the Fall deals page.
Update: UMPC Portal commenter Luiz Angelo Heinzen has pointed out that this might not be such a marketing trick after all. From his comment:
…Engadget is wrong.
They compared the combo notebooks and the deals page. On the Deals page, the Studio 15 goes for $699 and on the Combo page, the Studio 15 goes for $1,098.
But those are two different configs. The differences are:
$ 99 for the Mini
$ 25 for a Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™
$ 99 for McAfee SecurityCenter for 36 months
$ 190 for the 3Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote DiagnosisIf you add that to the $ 699 price tag you get $ 1122.
Yesterday I tried the XPS 1330 configs and got similar results.
So, this is not a marketing trick. You really have the discount. Unfortunately you can’t opt out the extras [my emphasis] on the $ 99 deal page.
September 7th, 2008 at 12:21 am
Actually, Steve, Engadget is wrong.
They compared the combo notebooks and the deals page. On the Deals page, the Studio 15 goes for $699 and on the Combo page, the Studio 15 goes for $1,098.
But those are two different configs. The differences are:
$ 99 for the Mini
$ 25 for a Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™
$ 99 for McAfee SecurityCenter for 36 months
$ 190 for the 3Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
If you add that to the $ 699 price tag you get $ 1122.
Yesterday I tried the XPS 1330 configs and got similar results.
September 7th, 2008 at 12:25 am
Sorry, I submited without intention.
So, this is not a marketing trick. You really have the discount. Unfortunately you can’t opt out the extras on the $ 99 deal page.
September 7th, 2008 at 10:36 am
I want to buy a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 for $99
now i’m living in Viet nam.
September 7th, 2008 at 10:39 am
where can I buy a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 for $99 in Viet nam.
September 8th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
I placed my order for an Studio 15 and min9 on the 5th Sept after being offer the Studio 15 for $649 the day before an Mini9 for $99, but that transaction didn’t go through. 6 calls to Dell later I finally placed a new order on the 5th this time having to pay the higher qualifying Studio 15 price of $1045 plus $99. I made a few changes to the confif which bought the total to $1290.51. I receieved an acknowledgement email from Dell listing my pruchase and purchase ID. Today after another 6 or seven transfer between Philipines , India and now the US they are trying to figure out what happened to my order. No one seems to know and Dells systems generates these numbers for reference to give to customers and can’t pull them up ever again. I suspect they did too weel with the promo and are now trying to shaft customers by these tricks. I was a return Dell customer but no more!!!