Apple: Will Carriers Sell Subsidizes MacBooks?

With the iPhone, Apple (AAPL) has found a happy partnership with global wireless carriers. Could they extend that relationship to include carrier-subsidized sales of MacBooks? Lisa Thompson, an analyst with research boutique JRPG , asserted in a weekend research note that Apple is “believed” to be negotiating with wireless carrier O2 to sell a subsidized laptop in the U.K., likely the low-end $999 MacBook. (Apple last week cut its price on that model by $100.) Thompson notes that netbooks - basically low-end notebooks - are being sold on a subsidized basis by some carriers in Europe. If Apple did cut such a deal, Thompson writes, it would likely use the same model it has for the iPhone, with hardware sold at lower prices for customers to who commit to two-year service contracts. “While a low-cost netbook from Apple could cannibalize higher end MacBooks,” she writes, “we believe that Apple would increase rather than decrease profits much as they did introducing ... (link)