The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is available with a 3G modem in Europe, Australia, and the US. And while you’ll have to shell out nearly $200 to get the 3G model in the US, wireless provider Vodafone has actually been susidizing the price of the netbook in Australia for customers who sign up for a 2 year service plan. There’s just one problem. Vodafone had promised customers a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 with 16GB of solid state storage and a copy of the Microsoft Works office suite preloaded. What customers actually got were netbooks with 8GB of storage space and no office suite.
As a result, APC Magazine reports Vodafone has temporarily halted sales of the netbooks, which have been available in Australia since December 1st. Dell is reportedly shipping new computers wiht 16GB SSDs to Australia and customers who got the first batch will be able to trade up.
Honestly, I think I’d rather have a PC with no office suite at all then MS Works. It’s not that hard to load your own copy of OpenOffice.org. But I’d hate to buy a computer that’s supposed to have 16GB of storage only to find out it has just 8GB. Windows XP takes up a few gigabytes of memory, which leaves you with little room for program files and media.