With all of the rumors of the Tablet, do you think it will be subsidized through a cell phone company (USA)? Through who? Perhaps Verizon?
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Apple Tablet Service Provider?
- Thread starter patrickdunn
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I don't see any subsidization of the Tablet. There's no sense in forcing people to play $2,000 to a telecom when Apple would only get $900.
The reason I was thinking subsidy, is now we are in the world of netbooks, and a subsidy would allow the price to come down to be competitive with netbooks.
There's no way in hell the millions of iPhone owners out there (who are the most likely to buy this thing in the first place) will be ponying up for another contract AND monthly bill from a different (?!) carrier.
That's insanity, IMO.
I could see this definitely having a 3g card but I highly doubt it will be tied to a network. I think mobile web (i.e. outside the house) is covered by the iPhone, if they put a bluetooth modem in and allow it to be tethered using the tethering data plan is more likely
I'm honestly not sure it will have anything other than wifi.
Yes, you can explain to me all the reasons why a 3G tablet will be awesome, but so would a 3G Macbook Air and they haven't done that yet either.
Really? I kind of see iPhone users as the LAST people to buy one of these. I mean, sure, many will, but percentage wise I'd think most tablet owners will be people who don't own a smartphone.
Look at this list:
Laptop
Smartphone
Tablet
I think most people will only own 2 items from that list. And I think iPhone + Tablet will be the LEAST popular combination.
Laptop + 1 other will be far, far more likely.
Yes, you can explain to me all the reasons why a 3G tablet will be awesome, but so would a 3G Macbook Air and they haven't done that yet either.
Really? I kind of see iPhone users as the LAST people to buy one of these. I mean, sure, many will, but percentage wise I'd think most tablet owners will be people who don't own a smartphone.
Look at this list:
Laptop
Smartphone
Tablet
I think most people will only own 2 items from that list. And I think iPhone + Tablet will be the LEAST popular combination.
Laptop + 1 other will be far, far more likely.
As much as I don't want to see a subsidized iProd, VZ looks to be positioning itself for just that opportunity. Gawd, why do I have this knot in my stomach...
I just mean that, generally, any Apple faithful will already own an iPhone.
I can't imagine too many Apple die hards not owning an iPhone by now. Apple die hards seem to be the people who buy this, as the more we talk about the tablet, the more it veers off into "non-essential" territory (unlike a phone, generally speaking).
It's clear that Apple is testing a variety of new products, although the credibility for the Verizon rumor is near none. I'm siding with the, no carrier.
You do know that tablets and netbooks are two totally different products, right?
Well, I had the opportunity to go up against those new HP/VZ netbooks v. my MBP 2.5 (w/tethering 3GS iPhone) at a national conference during July 10th-18th, '09 and I pretty much kept up with them navigating from website to website and opening up email. The VZ internet service was free for the VZ reps, but they said it was $60 and change per month for the plan, but that was with the "limited data" package. I told them that my tethering was FREE at this time, but $35-$40 was what I would expect from AT&T when it's available for everyone. The HP didn't have a hard drive and the battery was pretty weak (three batteries) and for whatever reason the internet connection was pretty slow for WiFi and that's why I said I was able to keep up on a 3G tethering connection. Not sure why VZ would limit their amazingly expensive internet connection? No CD/DVD drive and they operated on Windows XP v. my Mac OS X; and did I mention that the keyboard seemed really, really small? I kept hitting the wrong keys and the screen was small and uncomfortable to view. I'd really hate to see VZ having anything to do with Apples Tablet, but these VZ reps seemed pretty smug with their internet connected HP netbook....