A few days ago we saw Orange strike a deal in which they offered free laptops with their contracts. Now Dell has signed a deal with a U.K. mobile phone retailer to distribute free laptops with the purchase of a broadband Internet access subscription. Starting in September consumers who buy a two-year contract for America Online's broadband service through the Carphone Warehouse Group will get a coupon for a free base-model Inspiron notebook from Dell. AOL broadband costs £19.99 ($41) per month. This free laptop which is by far better than the one Orange is giving away for free uses Microsoft's Vista Home Basic OS and has 1 GB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, an Intel Celeron processor and Wi-Fi. The laptop can be upgraded for a fee. Customers also get a wireless router but have to pay a £14.99 laptop delivery fee. Jonathan Coham, an analyst at Ovum had the following to say.

"These are very low-margin customers for the time being both Orange and Carphone Warehouse are going to make a slim amount of money on top of what they are getting from the broadband subscriber. I think if Dell is smart they will see this as an opportunity to upsell these basic PC customers with additional accessories, software and support

A Dell spokeswoman said the deal with Carphone Warehouse is an extension of the company's retail strategy, and there will be more retail deals around the world coming soon.