Ultraportable, Web-centric netbooks PCs have been on the market for a relatively short amount of time, but prices continue to fall, as new models flood the market and wireless carriers move to subsidize the purchase cost.

And now, in what is likely a sign of things to come, a netbook can be had for mere pocket change.

Best Buy is currently offering an HP netbook — the  Compaq Mini 110c-1040DX — for the low-low price of 99 cents with the purchase of a 2-year data plan from Sprint. AT&T and Verizon already offer similar subsidies for netbooks–just not so steep. The same netbook will cost you $200 with 2-year activation with Verizon or AT&T. And without a contract, the device will run you $390.

Although the Compaq netbook — a 10-inch device with an Intel Atom processor, a 16-gigabyte solid-state drive and a Webcam — costs less than a pack of gum, the data plan will pinch the pocketbook. Sprint charges $60 a month for a 3G plan that includes 5 GB of data.

Still, if Sprint’s 99-cent netbook gambit finds enough takers, expect to see more and more offers like it popping up.

Sprint may be having a lot of problems marketing its own brand in the last few years, but according to Chief Executive Dan Hesse, Google’s Android mobile operating system isn’t perfect either.

He told the National Press Club in Washington that he didn’t think Android in its current form is ”good enough to put the Sprint brand on it.”

But Hesse promised to sell a phone powered by Android “at some time in the future.” Sprint is part of the alliance of about 30 companies that said they would support Google’s development of a mobile phone operating system. T-Mobile USA started selling the first phone powered by Android earlier this week.  (Reporting by Kim Dixon)

(Photograph: Reuters)

Two sectors may be getting a new lease on life after the Wall Street Journal reported news that a handful of the top U.S. cable operators are exploring a joint venture with Sprint Nextel and Clearwire to create a national high-speed wireless network to fight off the telcos for subscribers.

Without a big infusion of cash, WiMax technology could be a non-starter in the U.S. So far, Sprint has planned to introduce the service in three markets.

Expanding beyond that may prove a tough sell for Sprint shareholders who had widely criticized its commitment last year to spend $5 billion on WiMax by 2010. Sprint is also struggling to keep its existing customers from leaving.

But with an estimated $3 billion in potential investment from Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Google and Intel, Sprint and Clearwire are poised to make life uncomfortable for AT&T, Verizon, DirecTV and EchoStar.

The cable industry has also dabbled in offering wireless services over the past few years, notably with Sprint. But with wireless penetration in the United States at over 80 percent, coming to market with a me-too offering won’t cut it anymore.

Is this the dawn of a new broadband arms race?

(WSJ)

Keep an eye on:

• Banks to Clear Channel: No way. (Reuters)
• Motorola to spin off handset division. (Reuters)
• Take-Two to Electronic Arts: Still NO. (Reuters)
• Fewer reporters on the U.S. presidential campaign trail? Blame the blood-letting in the newspaper industry. (NYT)

(Photo: Reuters)