We are all used to going into a phone store and seeing prices that are subsidized and contingent on the buyer maintaining a contract with the mobile provider for two years. If you don’t want the contract you can opt to pay full price, typically hundreds of dollars more than the subsidized price.

During the 2008 holiday season RadioShack was the first company to offer a subsidized netbook in America based on maintaining mobile internet contract with AT&T. The netbook offered on the subsidized plan was the Acer Aspire One netbook.

RadioShack has now announced that the price for the subsidized netbook has been reduced to $79.99, a $20 reduction. To get the 8.9-inch Aspire One for $79.99 requires a 2-year contract for AT&T mobile broadband plans of $60 or more. The netbook runs Windows XP and has 1GB of RAM and a 160GB HDD.

RadioShack