Ugh. While the Motorola Atrix smartphone and laptop dock was one of the top products out of CES, the just announced pricing reality will temper the excitement of many. Including me.
By itself, the $200 Atrix would be a solid purchase on AT&T as perhaps the beefiest specced Android smartphone – that also happens to look and feel good. Yet its sleek, clever laptop dock runs another $300 at the time of purchase. Plus an additional $20/month for data tethering services.
I’m a fan of geeky convergence devices, and the Atrix sure looks slick in a Lenovo U1 sort of way. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a market for this laptop accessory. Not to mention, we don’t actually know what any of it will cost. At $150, who needs a netbook. At $350, why bother.
Indeed, we seem to have landed at that higher end of the pricing spectrum. At $300, a laptop running limited OS(es) that only powers up when mated to a smartphone isn’t very compelling. Most would be better served by picking up a more versatile netbook or tablet.
