The reporter's source is either confused or flat wrong. I say "confused," if he's getting the tablet and iPhone mixed up. It's one thing to release a cell phone for the CDMA network.
It's quite another thing to release 2 separate tablet computers. Why would I, the consumer, spend $600 - $999 for a tablet that prevents me from switching networks in the future? A tablet isn't meant to be somewhat "disposable" (replaceable?) like a phone.
Essentially, you'll have to choose between AT&T and Verizon at the time of purchase. Right now that seems like an easy decision, but what if ATT offers superior (or cheaper) service in a year to stay competitive?
Don't lots of people (not me) lock themselves into two-year phone contracts which cost a whole lot more? Don't you have to choose a wireless carrier with any device you buy, i.e., phone or netbook? It makes sense for Apple to design one unit to work with both kinds of network. Would that be prohibitively expensive?
...On top of that, I'll bet Apple is probably not looking to sell more than a couple of million of these in the first year (supply lock-ins), a feat they can quite easily achieve with just ATT...
Exactly,
Apple wants to sell quantity because they are a hardware company. Introducing a 3G enabled iTablet on top of iPhone is just out of too many people's reach, your talking about doubling their already high cell phone bills per month. I only know one person who uses 3G on their laptop and that's because it's used for business, so it's a write off.
The MacBook just quietly got a update...so this new device is not going to replace it.
I highly suspect the iPod Touch will be enlarged and come in colors. The App Store will be enlarged to have content from publishers and other things. Steve said the iPod Touch was a gaming device and he hates his devices being just that.
I also think iLife will have some sort of presence on the new iPod Touch, working with the one on the Mac. Of course which begs the question if iLife is now going to jump over to Windows or not.
Yeah, I really doubt the 3G modem will be included at all. Because it's such a data hog, plans would have to be prohibitively expensive for the carriers to seemingly justify the expense of the device on their network. But somehow Europe's providers can manage in Europe to cover the continent for $20 a month, plus give you landline internet. I call shenanigans on the telcos, but the FCC got its kness cut, so I guess the market is unregulated? Sounds like a plan to start ripping people off...
Yeah, and now I can't wait for those telcos to buy the politicians necessary to finish the job on the FCC and give us a consumers paradise at the teets of our corporate overlords. Thanks Supreme Court.
Why wouldn't sprint be able to get the islate or the iphone?
It seems like everyone has forgot about this company.
They are the first to have full blow 4G internet in the national from any carrier. Guess what that means....unlimited mobile internet. I don't care what company you talk about, 3G internet service has a 5 GB cap. How is someone going to "stream music from a itunes cloud" or "cruise the internet all the time" with this tablet that has a 5GB a month cap. And I bet the capabilities of this tablet will allow heavy users to flirt very close to the cap. A 4G system, a system sprint has,is UNLIMITED USAGE. And it is 12 times faster than any 3G network out there. Verizon is 2 years away from full blow 4G, at&t isn't even the picture, and Sprint is every where. In my home town in the central valley in California we are getting 4G in 5 months. Meanwhile, lots of other places already have it.
On that note, 4G would be able to support the iphone and the islate. No problem. And why wouldn't Sprint get it. We already have everything in place for ebooks because the amazon Kindle goes through sprint already. Everything is in place and we already know what we are doing. We just need a unit that people want like the islate.
Sprint should get the iphone also. We don't have our exclusivity with the Palm Pre anymore which was our "flagship" vs the iphone as of February because verizon is getting in then. I don't get why people think Steve Job's wants to work with verizon. He is a man of grudges and his business history can prove that. They reject him already, he will get them back. OH WOW, verizon has all this great coverage and blah blah blah. Sprint has great coverage also and when Sprint doesn't have coverage, it roams for FREE on VERIZON towers. So we both have each others coverage under one umbrella which gives the service area a HUGE amount of cell coverage.
Also verizon is to anal retentive for an apple product. They have to many rules and want to control to much of what is going on. For christ sake, Verizon used to tell phone makers to block bluetooth on handsets and they were charging a small fee monthly if you wanted to have bluetooth. You think a company who nickel and dimes is going to let a revenue monster like itunes roam freely with verizon not getting a cut? NO WAY. And apple wont budge on it either. I guess we will see what happens.
Why wouldn't sprint be able to get the islate or the iphone?
It seems like everyone has forgot about this company.
We already have everything in place for ebooks because the amazon Kindle goes through sprint already. Everything is in place and we already know what we are doing. We just need a unit that people want like the islate.
With all the "we" in your post, I gather that you work for Sprint?
Not that there's anything wrong with that, but you might just declare it up front..
Personally, I'd love to see Sprint get iPhone since I'm currently with them, but I'm not holding my breath.
A ten inch iPhone replacing something you can slip in your pocket - making anyone who used it in public look like dork - you call that a 'good point', ?
It sounded to me like Verizon wanted both a 3G and a WiFi lock in. Cellular lock ins are bad enough but they can shove the tablet up a dark place if they think locking WiFi will be acceptable.
2.
Related to the above I really really do not want a carrier locked device. Rather I want a GSM device that allows instant carrier switches via a sim card swap. A carrier locked device is almost worthless outside of the country you purchased it in. If you travel you need a device that is a snap to change carriers with, even for a few weeks at a time.
3.
Not to get in a dung flinging match but Verizon sucks bad. They are just about the worst when it comes to lock things down or other wise screwing up perfectly good hardware. Frankly this rumor has me wondering if this rumor is even valid because I can't see Verizon agreeing to Apples terms.
4.
Sprint has already been mentioned but they really don't seem to have much of a commercial presence. However I'd go for those guys before Verizon.
5.
Building two models seems to be rather stupid. If the cell radio can't switch between standards then it should be rethought or delayed. CDMA is dying but that isn't the real issue. The real issue is that it is another way to get locked in. Would anybody here really buy a CDMA tied device knowing that it will be outdated shortly? This is a serious issue as ideally the tablet would last a lot longer than a cell phone. Three years down the road you might want to switch carriers. Or simply sell the device, at which point a CDMA device could look antiquated.
In any event the more rumors that pop up the more that I smell a rat. I have this fear that Apple is going to go way overboard here with their cellular contracts. I hope I don't have to call for a consummer revolt and boycott. It is not. The price that bothers me but rather the Mack of freedom implied with the cellular arraingements.
"...you'll get a line-item for that data service on your cell bill."
Oh no I won't. I'll never sign up for that.
On Verizon, if you even accidentally hit a button to access the internet, even for a split second, they charge you for a megabyte (or some minimum amount, don't recall exactly). This company will never get my money again.
ATT's 3G covers 97% of the population....who cares if they don't cover some remote mountain out west.
With ATT, you get access to over 20,000 free wifi hotspots, faster 3G, and a plan to make it even faster before 4G takes root.
oh, hey luke wilson, thanks for stopping by.
97% of population is covered by at&t's voice network. not 3G. probably not even EDGE. listen closely to at&t's own ads; they never make this claim.
how are the hotspots free? you have to pay for cell phone service or have a residential internet account with at&t to get access. that's not free, you are saving at&t money by doing that because you connect to their wifi access point instead of their expensive 3G tower.
3G to tablet ... that's awesome ... yet, wouldn't that overload the networks more ?
Yes, which is bad news for us Verizon Wireless users who enjoyed a relatively uncongested network for this long.
Honestly whatever deal Verizon negotiates with Apple, if they don't utilize a tiered pricing scheme ($$$ per X number of bytes per mo) their network is going to get crippled just like AT&T. You give people unlimited bandwith/download quotas and they'll freeload all day.
ATT's 3G covers 97% of the population....who cares if they don't cover some remote mountain out west.
With ATT, you get access to over 20,000 free wifi hotspots, faster 3G, and a plan to make it even faster before 4G takes root.
This is an uninformed statement. I live in New York, south of Buffalo. Far from a mountain out west. I had to drop my AT&T plan and sell my iPhone because of poor coverage in my area. Not just 3G, but a signal all together. 3G never existed here, only Edge when I was lucky.
Thankfully Verizon has decent phones now. My Droid Eris is a good substitute phone until the iPhone finally comes to Verizon. The day that happens, AT&T is going to hurt quite a bit on the smartphone front.
I was getting the impression that it sits on the living room table like a magazine and is shared by the family. If so, why does it need 3G? Surely most families who would buy such a thing would have a WLAN in their house. It is just to compete with Kindle?
If Apple releases a tablet that requires me to sign up with a data plan, then I have no interest in the device. Apple should make it wi-fi only and tell people that if they want access on the go, they should get a mi-fi. Thats what I plan to do if Apple doesn't screw it up.
Comments
The reporter's source is either confused or flat wrong. I say "confused," if he's getting the tablet and iPhone mixed up. It's one thing to release a cell phone for the CDMA network.
It's quite another thing to release 2 separate tablet computers. Why would I, the consumer, spend $600 - $999 for a tablet that prevents me from switching networks in the future? A tablet isn't meant to be somewhat "disposable" (replaceable?) like a phone.
Essentially, you'll have to choose between AT&T and Verizon at the time of purchase. Right now that seems like an easy decision, but what if ATT offers superior (or cheaper) service in a year to stay competitive?
Don't lots of people (not me) lock themselves into two-year phone contracts which cost a whole lot more? Don't you have to choose a wireless carrier with any device you buy, i.e., phone or netbook? It makes sense for Apple to design one unit to work with both kinds of network. Would that be prohibitively expensive?
...On top of that, I'll bet Apple is probably not looking to sell more than a couple of million of these in the first year (supply lock-ins), a feat they can quite easily achieve with just ATT...
Exactly,
Apple wants to sell quantity because they are a hardware company. Introducing a 3G enabled iTablet on top of iPhone is just out of too many people's reach, your talking about doubling their already high cell phone bills per month. I only know one person who uses 3G on their laptop and that's because it's used for business, so it's a write off.
The MacBook just quietly got a update...so this new device is not going to replace it.
I highly suspect the iPod Touch will be enlarged and come in colors. The App Store will be enlarged to have content from publishers and other things. Steve said the iPod Touch was a gaming device and he hates his devices being just that.
I also think iLife will have some sort of presence on the new iPod Touch, working with the one on the Mac. Of course which begs the question if iLife is now going to jump over to Windows or not.
Yeah, I really doubt the 3G modem will be included at all. Because it's such a data hog, plans would have to be prohibitively expensive for the carriers to seemingly justify the expense of the device on their network. But somehow Europe's providers can manage in Europe to cover the continent for $20 a month, plus give you landline internet. I call shenanigans on the telcos, but the FCC got its kness cut, so I guess the market is unregulated? Sounds like a plan to start ripping people off...
Yeah, and now I can't wait for those telcos to buy the politicians necessary to finish the job on the FCC and give us a consumers paradise at the teets of our corporate overlords. Thanks Supreme Court.
It seems like everyone has forgot about this company.
They are the first to have full blow 4G internet in the national from any carrier. Guess what that means....unlimited mobile internet. I don't care what company you talk about, 3G internet service has a 5 GB cap. How is someone going to "stream music from a itunes cloud" or "cruise the internet all the time" with this tablet that has a 5GB a month cap. And I bet the capabilities of this tablet will allow heavy users to flirt very close to the cap. A 4G system, a system sprint has,is UNLIMITED USAGE. And it is 12 times faster than any 3G network out there. Verizon is 2 years away from full blow 4G, at&t isn't even the picture, and Sprint is every where. In my home town in the central valley in California we are getting 4G in 5 months. Meanwhile, lots of other places already have it.
On that note, 4G would be able to support the iphone and the islate. No problem. And why wouldn't Sprint get it. We already have everything in place for ebooks because the amazon Kindle goes through sprint already. Everything is in place and we already know what we are doing. We just need a unit that people want like the islate.
Sprint should get the iphone also. We don't have our exclusivity with the Palm Pre anymore which was our "flagship" vs the iphone as of February because verizon is getting in then. I don't get why people think Steve Job's wants to work with verizon. He is a man of grudges and his business history can prove that. They reject him already, he will get them back. OH WOW, verizon has all this great coverage and blah blah blah. Sprint has great coverage also and when Sprint doesn't have coverage, it roams for FREE on VERIZON towers. So we both have each others coverage under one umbrella which gives the service area a HUGE amount of cell coverage.
Also verizon is to anal retentive for an apple product. They have to many rules and want to control to much of what is going on. For christ sake, Verizon used to tell phone makers to block bluetooth on handsets and they were charging a small fee monthly if you wanted to have bluetooth. You think a company who nickel and dimes is going to let a revenue monster like itunes roam freely with verizon not getting a cut? NO WAY. And apple wont budge on it either. I guess we will see what happens.
Why wouldn't sprint be able to get the islate or the iphone?
It seems like everyone has forgot about this company.
We already have everything in place for ebooks because the amazon Kindle goes through sprint already. Everything is in place and we already know what we are doing. We just need a unit that people want like the islate.
With all the "we" in your post, I gather that you work for Sprint?
Not that there's anything wrong with that, but you might just declare it up front..
Personally, I'd love to see Sprint get iPhone since I'm currently with them, but I'm not holding my breath.
Very good points.
A ten inch iPhone replacing something you can slip in your pocket - making anyone who used it in public look like dork - you call that a 'good point', ?
It sounded to me like Verizon wanted both a 3G and a WiFi lock in. Cellular lock ins are bad enough but they can shove the tablet up a dark place if they think locking WiFi will be acceptable.
2.
Related to the above I really really do not want a carrier locked device. Rather I want a GSM device that allows instant carrier switches via a sim card swap. A carrier locked device is almost worthless outside of the country you purchased it in. If you travel you need a device that is a snap to change carriers with, even for a few weeks at a time.
3.
Not to get in a dung flinging match but Verizon sucks bad. They are just about the worst when it comes to lock things down or other wise screwing up perfectly good hardware. Frankly this rumor has me wondering if this rumor is even valid because I can't see Verizon agreeing to Apples terms.
4.
Sprint has already been mentioned but they really don't seem to have much of a commercial presence. However I'd go for those guys before Verizon.
5.
Building two models seems to be rather stupid. If the cell radio can't switch between standards then it should be rethought or delayed. CDMA is dying but that isn't the real issue. The real issue is that it is another way to get locked in. Would anybody here really buy a CDMA tied device knowing that it will be outdated shortly? This is a serious issue as ideally the tablet would last a lot longer than a cell phone. Three years down the road you might want to switch carriers. Or simply sell the device, at which point a CDMA device could look antiquated.
In any event the more rumors that pop up the more that I smell a rat. I have this fear that Apple is going to go way overboard here with their cellular contracts. I hope I don't have to call for a consummer revolt and boycott. It is not. The price that bothers me but rather the Mack of freedom implied with the cellular arraingements.
JUST SAY NO TO CARRIER LOCKED TABLETS!
Dave
Verizon covers 85% of the USA with 3G towers.
AT&T covers 17% of the country.
(Yes... 5 *TIMES* difference.)
Gee... I wonder if Apple will sell more Verizon-Tablets... or AT&T-Tablets.
Ok....
But what percentage of the POPULATION does AT&T cover?
Do you rally think Apple product target cities or hickville?
Oh no I won't. I'll never sign up for that.
On Verizon, if you even accidentally hit a button to access the internet, even for a split second, they charge you for a megabyte (or some minimum amount, don't recall exactly). This company will never get my money again.
ATT's 3G covers 97% of the population....who cares if they don't cover some remote mountain out west.
With ATT, you get access to over 20,000 free wifi hotspots, faster 3G, and a plan to make it even faster before 4G takes root.
oh, hey luke wilson, thanks for stopping by.
97% of population is covered by at&t's voice network. not 3G. probably not even EDGE. listen closely to at&t's own ads; they never make this claim.
how are the hotspots free? you have to pay for cell phone service or have a residential internet account with at&t to get access. that's not free, you are saving at&t money by doing that because you connect to their wifi access point instead of their expensive 3G tower.
By area, not by population. Right?
So who cares if Verizon is covering the heck out of Death Valley?
Have your car breakdown in Death Valley and you will
3G to tablet ... that's awesome ... yet, wouldn't that overload the networks more ?
Yes, which is bad news for us Verizon Wireless users who enjoyed a relatively uncongested network for this long.
Honestly whatever deal Verizon negotiates with Apple, if they don't utilize a tiered pricing scheme ($$$ per X number of bytes per mo) their network is going to get crippled just like AT&T. You give people unlimited bandwith/download quotas and they'll freeload all day.
They do not work right now for Mac OS X - it's windoze-only.
ATT's 3G covers 97% of the population....who cares if they don't cover some remote mountain out west.
With ATT, you get access to over 20,000 free wifi hotspots, faster 3G, and a plan to make it even faster before 4G takes root.
This is an uninformed statement. I live in New York, south of Buffalo. Far from a mountain out west. I had to drop my AT&T plan and sell my iPhone because of poor coverage in my area. Not just 3G, but a signal all together. 3G never existed here, only Edge when I was lucky.
Thankfully Verizon has decent phones now. My Droid Eris is a good substitute phone until the iPhone finally comes to Verizon. The day that happens, AT&T is going to hurt quite a bit on the smartphone front.
My guess is that they will offer one model that works on both networks. I just hope they don't make the data plan mandatory.
I agree. With anything approaching 10", who is going to use this on the go? I am going to use it at home, at work, or places where I have Wifi.
I won't pay another $40-$60/month to have 3G access for another device. It's just not worth it - that's what I have my iPhone for.