Engadget has news that a market research firm has been conducting an online survey indicated that AT&T is considering carrying netbooks/ultraportables in AT&T stores.
This is on the heels of a Fortune Magazine interview with the AT&T executive responsible for the AT&T side of the iPhone agreement with Apple, where he mentioned that netbooks were his next target, with plans to use them to sell AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband plans.
On top of all of this, LAPTOP Magazine has an interview with Glenn Lurie, the AT&T executive mentioned above, where he confirms that AT&T plans on adding netbooks to their stores, with this response to LAPTOP Magazine’s questions:
LAPTOP Magazine: Will people be able to buy a netbook in an AT&T store at some point?
AT&T/Glenn Lurie: Yes, at some point we will carry them and many types of devices in our stores. I see us including netbooks, MIDs, e-books, portable navigation, and all types of connected devices. I also see these devices being in the traditional big-box retailers and their Web sites.
Quoting the AT&T survey material (from Engadget):
Introducing….The Netbook at AT&T
Netbooks represent a new category of ultra-mobile laptops that are small-sized and lightweight. They are optimized for wireless Internet access and browsing needs.
It then mentions some of the benefits (“compact and lightweight, easy to carry around”) and common specifications (screen size, weight, battery life) as well as mentioning no internal optical drives.
Then we have this: