What's the deal with "business" netbooks?

An IT company is trying to sell me netbooks, but because they're "business" rather than "home" they're twice the price for less than the same specs. Adding insult to injury, we're quoted separately on power adapters, which add about 10% to the unit cost.

Do they really not come with power adapters? Am I the only one who thinks that's ridiculous? Is that a standard thing from Asus, HP, etc.?

The only other difference I can see is that they come with XP Pro instead of XP Home...but even that's not the case for all the units.

Is there different hardware? Is there even really a different class of netbook for businesses, or is it all made up? (Re: made up: For instance, we have Bell "Business" DSL at work, and they shipped us a DSL modem labelled "SpeedTouch HOME". Since they're service doesn't have any more uptime than I get at home, I assume they're just charging double because we're a business and they're therefore allowed to force us to buy "business" service even if it's exactly the same as their home service.)

My observations ...

1- DLux and Dave M summarize nicely the home vs. business issues for hardware. Be very clear about installed OS (and license), other included apps, the warranty period and what is covered, how long phone support is included, etc.

2- I would be skeptical about the "IT company" with whom you are working. Their inability to answer this question effectively raises a red flag for me.

3- I have no problem paying more to work with a provider or integrator who adds value. Just be clear what value is actually added. OTOH, many of these companies who add nothing but cost and headaches.

4- If you buy Windows systems from an integrator, make sure that you get documentation that any installed software (and OS) is properly licensed.

What kind of warranty do they come with? Is it a 30 day thing, or a 3 year, on site, no fault warranty? That would make sense because Netbooks are fragile, and business users are anything but careful with equipment that doesn't belong to them. The OS difference will add cost, but not much.

As for the DSL thing, usually a 'business' connection carries a totally different SLA than a home connection would.

The only major difference will be the OS. As a Pro version of the XP operating system, you can control and manage the machines by joining them to an Active Directory domain, and subject them to Group Policy.

Without any other details, in general "business" models offer the following advantages:

• Longer refresh period, which allows you to buy the same model a 6 months or a year later
• A better level of support, so instead of accessing a first level call center in India you are talking to more knowledgeable reps who speak your native language
• Longer warranty period which may be 3-4 years instead of 90 days or 1 year
• More "rugged" equipment may be used to support the longer warranty in business environments (i.e. the manufacturer doesn't want to keep replacing cheap plastic cases at their expense)

All of these lower the TCO of the hardware at increased up-front costs. If your vendor is not providing any of the above for their "business" class hardware, then all they are doing is extracting more money from you. Some things like longer refreshes may not even be important to you if you do not use standardized images.