[citation][nom]kinggraves[/nom]See, here's my problem with Google's logic. Part of the fee involves service, support, and upgrades. Now, if I terminate the contract, I'm not getting 3 years of service, support, and upgrades, so why would I have to pay the FULL contract? Even at the maximum, the termination fee should involve the price of the machine + the service received thus far, minus what's already been paid.Now, I'll admit that these contracts are for businesses and education, and part of the contract for businesses requires a minimum purchase of 10, so this contract is for major establishments who can likely commit to the machines for 3 years.[/citation]
I think in the case of businesses and education institutions the idea is to buy a 'fleet' of these for students/employees and then farm out each one to each employee/student, get the to pay the monthly fee either directly or charge it on, and then when a student/employee leaves they just give it back. UTS in Sydney, Australia already loans out notebooks, so here people will be able to have their 'own' and be covered if anything goes wrong. With 1000's of students there's always going to be someone to take it up if someone else gives one back. This model is already almost the preferred in industry, where people pay big monthly fees or $100 or more just for the notebook with added warranty. $28 in comparison is cheap, remember parts are made in China but services sometime need expensive western world labour.
Also google is probably just being a bit lazy by not giving people to many options. The last thing I'd want personally is a the scheme to get as complicated as the mobile phone industry is. Those complications are there to confuse people into not knowing what a good deal is and buying based on marketing BS. Keep in mind that we're the i1337 on this site and it's not really aimed at us necessarily, there are heaps of humanities students that don't want to know about the ins and outs.
And if you want a plain old laptop without a contract, who's stopping you? That's the system we've lived with for years. The fact of the matter is that this is the first time I can get any sort of notebook that comes with the software one might need for an up front cost of a mobile phone. Well done to Google for trying something different, and if it all tanks thanks for putting up the few million dollars to try (much better than the money going to booze and hooker like it does on Wall Street)