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Full redesign in 2012...
- Thread starter Jasmynp
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I doubt it.
Honestley I fear with steve jobs gone the apple product line could get cluttered with things like this..
Apple seems to be deathly afraid of incorporating 3G in their laptops.
I've waited for years, while concurrently ordering new ThinkPad T series with 3G built in. It works so well, year after year I am so disappointed in Apples fear factor.
Yet that said, and taking into consideration that Apple is usually current with their technology, they may have found that it's the aluminum case that is the barrier to proper performance.
You just never know with Apple. One minute they are doing really great things, then next they build a phone with an antenna so weak it barely makes calls.
Thankfully my new iPhone 4S has an excellent phone. Finally Apple hired some engineers that knew what they were doing and fixed it.
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The problem is that it would be copying everyone else. Even Dell includes 3G, as does Acer, Asus, Toshiba, well... you get the idea.
At work we ordered 112 new ThinkPads with 3G last year and are nearly at that level this year with the growth we've experienced. It's essential for our employees that work in the field in areas that are not heavily populated with hot spots.
No....
Besides, you can use your smartphone to tether.
You can go to library, schools, work place, restaurant and etc to use their Wi-fi.
Unless you are using your laptop at the parking a lot or the beach, 3G laptop is not 100% necessary.
It doesn't have enough markets for it, so that must be why apple isn't creating it.
Besides, you can use your smartphone to tether.
You can go to library, schools, work place, restaurant and etc to use their Wi-fi.
Unless you are using your laptop at the parking a lot or the beach, 3G laptop is not 100% necessary.
It doesn't have enough markets for it, so that must be why apple isn't creating it.
then why have 3G in an ipad?
iphone tethering, at least in my experience is brutal. unless i'm hooked up USB, i can't get the stupid connection to last a few minutes.
i don't care about 3G, but i'm not sure i understand why Apple has avoided it, and i haven't heard a compelling theory as to why.
iPhone tethering is as easy as - depending on your carrier.
we can tether either remotely by Bluetooth or cable USB and get really good speeds
my preference is BT
thus cannot see Mac portables going with 3G inbuilt - no need
Most likely Apple is not adding 3G to laptops because of product differentiation. They introduced the iPad with 3G, so no point in adding 3G to laptops to 'compete' with the iPad. It's a business model.
And I don't think they will redesign the Air. More likely they will just redesign the MacBook Pros to look like Airs, possibly only keeping the 17'' one with a thicker design.
You make a good point. Although, I'm sure there are people like me who would gladly own both.
i have ATT and the the guy at the store himself tethering is flaky. i'll try bluetooth.
but, again, then why 3G in ipad?
... maybe leaving 3G out of the laptops encourages sales of iphones and ipads to tether from? then again, i don't know how much help those products need. (maybe its a weird licencing thing?)
But the thing is, 3G doesn't exactly cost a lot to install. I don't see why they couldn't just throw it into their MBA. It doesn't even have to be their main selling point, just something that is nice to have! I really don't want some ugly and bulky dongle sticking out of my MBA...
Everyone complains about the MBAs battery enough as it is. What do you think adding 3G will do to the battery life?
Is there no way to improve the battery life? I suppose that if that would be a huge problem Apple would consider that and find a way to improve it.
My thought would be paying for the downloaded data; the carriers are imposing more caps and charging more. I would wonder if an iPad vs MBP (assuming both had 3G) which would use more data? Would the MBP use more? or the iPad?
This is pretty much the correct answer...when the ipad morphs into something else, maybe then, but not soon for the MBA...
perhaps, but i think the products are quite different either way. is the ipad too much like an iphone because it also has 3G?
As long as there is no clear standard for 3G connectivity shared by all carriers, I don't see why anyone would want to drop 1500$ and be tied to a single carrier. If you decide to then switch, your laptop can't follow unless you use tethering or a 3G USB modem.
Might as well just use Tethering right from the get go. My iPhone tethers just fine through Bluetooth, USB or Wi-Fi to my MBA. I get Internet anywhere that way and it doesn't cost me anything extra (my carrier doesn't charge for tethering, but does for data plan sharing).
Might as well just use Tethering right from the get go. My iPhone tethers just fine through Bluetooth, USB or Wi-Fi to my MBA. I get Internet anywhere that way and it doesn't cost me anything extra (my carrier doesn't charge for tethering, but does for data plan sharing).
this makes a little more sense to me. then again, people buy $800 ipads that are tied to a carrier, so i don't know.
But the carrier term for iPads is month to month. I figure it would be the same for a MBA.
I think most of you guys are right though. It's not in the cards. At least not for next year.
Well, here in Sweden open wifi spots aren't that common but 3G works great and and is affordable. You come across students using a laptop with a dongle attached every day. The situation seems to be the same in the larger part of Europe, so I'd guess it's really the US markets that pose that kind of problem of several standards within one market (?).
I've been on 3G wireless internet for over 4 years and counting and unless prices go up drastically I don't plan on changing that. Wired home internet would cost me about the same or more (of course for more money I could get 200MBps wired, but I'm fine speed wise, anything from 5-20MBps, average between 8-10) but doesn't offer the same freedom.
An internal 3G modem would be great for me, though I don't know if carriers can/are allowed to lock it down here. That would be problematic if true. Also, LTE coverage is growing and several carriers are offering plans but it's not really there yet (also I hear the current chips like to drain batteries compared to 3G?), especially since the current speeds of 3G are quite nice here.
Then again I know that our 3G network is so heavily used that people get dropped calls due to the recent popularity of 3G 'home' internet (and chatty apps). So maybe 3G dongles are the way to go until LTE becomes mainstream (and less power hungry) after all.
Oh well, whenever the iPad (or its spiritual successor) gets a good latex-release that allows for on-device compilation and a capable text editor, I'll go for that as my one and only device/computer and stop dreaming of a MBA with internal wireless modem.
Nope. No way as far as I know. Screen will always drain quite a significant amount if nothing else. And the network hardware does draw quite a significant chunk by itself. Try downloading a file and look at your battery indicator, and you'll see.
i think i get something like 1MBps on ATT in the US when tethering off the iphone. whereas your typical US home connection gets what you're getting on 3G; internet in the US is still in the dark ages, unfortunately.
naturally, 3G as a primary connection is not very big here, which may help in understanding Apple's lack of motivation to implement it in their portables. however, the question as to why in the ipad and not in the MBA, i think, still stands.