I'm just curious why these super thin and light Apple laptops don't come with a cellular option? The MB, MBA, and even MBP 13" are made for portability, and everything is becoming cloud-based, so wouldn't it make sense to have a 4G radio inside so you're always connected?
It might be something Apple offers if/when we end up at a stable point for cellular technology. Right now though, it's unlikely. Cellular technology is changing every 6-12 months, with new bands and additions to LTE features being added all the time. Even the iPhone 6/6Plus came out to market without having all of the LTE bands that all carriers use. And if you look at previous-gen models, the situation was even worse.
Meanwhile, the expected lifespan for most laptops is 3-5 years, sometimes even longer, and the base macbook
starts at $1400. If you integrate cellular technology into that laptop, then the user is stuck with that technology for as long as they own it... even if it goes out of date or something better comes along in 6 months.
By contrast, cell phones are upgraded every 1-2 years and can cost way less. They're seen as disposable, where laptops aren't. And since the cellular capability is the primary function of the cell phone, then dealing with the rapidly changing tech is viewed as a necessary evil.
As for tablets: They're not seen
as disposable as smartphones, but are still "more" disposable and supposedly have shorter lifespans than laptops. So people who are willing to pay money for it take their chances.
They're also looking at the rest of the market: hardly anyone else is making cellular capable laptops. And out of those "laptops" who do have cellular built in, they're actually tablets with keyboards attached... or at best, laptop/tablet hybrids. And, they're not selling nearly as well as Macs are.
Lastly: To be blunt, Apple
wants you to buy an iPhone or iPad. The margins are higher, and they make way more money off them than their laptops. In fact, if a person had to choose between buying an iPhone/iPad and buying a MacBook/Air/Pro, from Apple's viewpoint, they'd rather you get the iDevice because it makes them more profit in the end, and makes you more likely to come back sooner for an upgrade... making them even more money in the near future.
Meanwhile, if you're the traveling type that wants mobile data on a laptop, then Apple is betting that it's so important to you, that you're also willing to pay for a smartphone or tablet if that's what it takes to get that functionality. And if a lack of cellular data is going to nudge people to buy an iPhone or iPad to round out their ecosystem
along with an Apple laptop, so much the better for Apple. They don't want to give you an excuse to not buy an iDevice, and for people just like you, offering built-in cellular on laptops is exactly the out they want to keep you from having.
You're probably going to look at this post with the same disgust you've given everyone else, so I'm just gonna say it: you want "solutions," but none of us can give you any. We don't build the laptops, and we're not Tim Cook. All we can do is give you reasons why we
think this is the case. And we don't even necessarily agree with those reasons, either.
If you wanna vent,
vent to Apple about it. Maybe they'll listen. But I'd suggest you give them a little more respect than you've shown here.
