With all the commotion going on at CES with the new Android 3.0 (a.k.a Honeycomb) tablets that support LTE you’d think the world has gone crazy.
I am not an owner of a tablet – hell, I even decided to buy a Kindle instead of an iPad as my own personal birthday present. But I will have a tablet – you know, for the kids. Something nice to play with and to consume media with once in a while.
The Motorola Xoom. No – I don’t want 3G or upg-radable to 4G.
But a tablet with cellular connectivity? 3G, 4G, LTE? No way.
Why? Because I don’t want to:
- I don’t want to purchase a larger data plan from a service provider
- I don’t want to deal with roaming data charges abroad
- I don’t want to close and open data connectivity when I need or don’t need it
- I don’t want to download a data counter widget from an app store
- I don’t want to think about how much bandwidth I consume
- I don’t want to be surprised from crappy 3rd party LinkedIn apps (not from LinkedIn mind you) that hog up all of your data plan in less than 24 hours
- I don’t want to look for an email client that connects to Exchange but doesn’t use the cellular service unless I specifically ask it to
I just want WiFi. And I want to connect from home, work, or wherever it is I have WiFi (which is almost everywhere I need it).
Verizon’s LTE smartphones and tablets unveiled at CES 2011 (source: GottaBeMobile)
I’ll use my smartphone to connect through the cellular network on the go if I must. But not using my tablet.
Can anyone please give me a WiFi only Google “iPAD”?
Does the double negative actually mean you DO want a 4G tablet?
I was originally thinking if I got a tablet, Id surely look at the 3G + Wifi but as you say, why be burdened with all the other bits when you just just adopt any one of the plethora of wifi networks on my travels and use BTopenzone or boingo for example.
Here Here! I agree completely. The last thing we need is to pay for another overprices connection, so companies like Verizon can charge us outlandish amounts for minuscule bandwidth, then dictate how it can be used.
What we really need is legislation that clarifies: if consumers PAY for bandwidth it is ours to use however we want to use it. Period. No 10 or 20 cents per text, which uses almost no bandwidth. NO “tethering” charges to pay EXTRA to use bandwidth we already pay for with another device. Transparency in bandwidth advertising- calling a plan “unlimited” when they really mean “limited to what we decide is reasonable AFTER you sign up”. No charging for services they are not providing- like Verizon charging for video phone services that use YOUR broadband connection. If wireless providers are now going to be allowed to prioritize services/ packets to you on bandwidth you payed for, to push services, adds, etc. then they should pay you back for the part of your bandwidth when they are dictating its use. Not a compromise, but another case of the consumer screwed.