Quote:
Originally Posted by
Santoanderson 
Because not everybody wants to carry around two devices to do one thing. Plus, since you're on an Apple board, very few people on here have an LTE smartphone to tether.
I think people are missing the obvious reason why/why not having LTE is important.
LTE is rolled out in large population centers, eg New York, LA, etc. The very same areas the wireless companies are complaining about about data hogs. Demand for LTE has to come from the wireless companies when they have equivalent coverage for LTE as they do for their 2G network. LTE is not backwards compatible with the 2G or 3/3.5G networks already rolled out, it requires additional support in the chip just like in the upgrade from 2G to 3G. Qualcomm has a chip for it now.
If you read why the iPhone 4/4S/iPad2 didn't come with LTE it's again, because there was no chip suitable. The LTE chip that Qualcomm had was a full separate ARM CPU and/or would only be suitable for data, not voice at the time.
It's a chicken and egg scenario, Apple might include LTE in the next iDevice, but it will only work with LTE networks in the US, Canada, Mexico and anywhere else that adopts EXACTLY the same frequency bands. In case you haven't seen the PCB for the iPad, the 3G radio is detachable (unlike the iPhone), therefor it's much much easier for Apple to create one PCB for the iPad 3, and then adjust output for the different 3G models as demand increases or decreases. So even if there is no LTE at launch, they could still add it at some point before the next version comes out if they needed to.
But people carrying two devices are missing the entire point. Jim Bob from off the street is going to go into the store and buy a fancy new iPad 3 that works with their wireless carrier because they can only afford one device, not two. It may even be subsidized.
Two separate devices or a MiFi type device is a poor excuse that doesn't fly unless you have multiple devices to manage in the first place. Like maybe you're on a family trip you might have one device with wireless that you can control availability of, and your kids and spouse might have their own iPod/iPad devices.
If I'm just travelling to see Grandma, I'm taking only the tablet because ol' granny doesn't even own a computer so there won't be WiFi there. Who cares if it's LTE or not, it just has to work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
I am a Zither Zather Zuzz 
There is NO reason why they have failed to include an SD slot except for the ability to make more profits by excluding it.
That's rather naive considering you can buy an
Apple -SD card adapter. It probably has more to do with there not being a way to include it on the iPhone and iPad if most people aren't going to use it, or security concerns. Apple could put a MicroSDXC slot on it, but then people would complain that they can't install apps to it, or someone would inevitably figure out how to jailbreak the device with it. Note it's marketed as "Camera Kit" and only lets you copy data from the card to the iPad.