Will an Exclusive Best Buy Deal Help or Hurt Nokia’s Booklet 3G Netbook?

Nokia Booklet 3GI imagine that if you want a Nokia Booklet 3G netbook, you could always order one online. But if you want to kick the tires of the device in a U.S. brick-and-mortar store, you’ll be driving to your local Best Buy. Nokia pinged me late last night to tell me that Best Buy will be the exclusive retailer carrying the netbook. That’s both good and bad at the same.

On the plus side, Nokia will have to demonstrate tremendous value in its first x86 computer offering. The best way to do that, assuming you have a solid product, is to get it front of potential customers. With a tad over 1,000 locations, Nokia should get plenty of eyeballs and fingertips on its netbook. And while we don’t know the official price of the netbook just yet, all signs are pointing to a price north of $700 or so. Best Buy does have mobile sales relationships with carriers, so it’s certainly not out of the question to see a subsidized Booklet 3G with wireless broadband service coming out of Best Buy.

But the price is really going to be key, and that’s where this deal has the potential to be bad. Michael Gartenberg said it best to me in a tweet last night: “[C]onsumer sees $299 netbook and $899 netbook with the same specs… which do they buy?” Again, we don’t know the exact price, so don’t take that $899 figure to the bank. However, Michael’s point is well taken. If the Nokia Booklet 3G is sitting next to various other netbooks, consumers will be drawn to make price comparisons. Unless Nokia can demonstrate several key feature advantages, any netbook selling for 20-40 percent less would close the book on a Booklet 3G purchase.

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