Comments on: 3G Tablets fall from favor say researchers

By: Cannibal Cuisine

Cannibal Cuisine — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 08:01:00 +0000

Isn’t 3g faster than mobile tethering?
I own the asus transformer and I tested using my phone as a mobile hotspot and the browsing was ridiculously slow.
If I had a 3g tablet and purchased a data sim for it, would I have a faster browsing experience ie be able to skype etc?

By: Clever81

Clever81 — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:24:00 +0000

This frustrates me, I want to buy the Asus Transformer Prime to replace my laptop for all but things that I actually need my PC for (Photoshop, torrents, burning CD’s, etc). But I really want one with a 3G connection so that I have true mobility. Our mobile plans don’t come with a lot of data and I don’t want to get stung with extra usage charges or have to upgrade my mobile plan. It’s much better value (and more convenient) to buy a data sim than to have to worry about setting my mobile up as a hotspot everytime I wanna do some web surfing. Yes I have WiFi at home but we have a big house and I get blackspots. I’m not going to spend $500+ on something that I can’t always use! I think that even though it’s not very common now, that data sim prices will continue to fall and more and more people will start buying tablets with 3G as well as WiFi.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:43:00 +0000

I would certainly have a hard time paying extra for a data plan just for a tablet and if your phone has a mobile hotspot feature it is completely pointless. Of course mobile hotspot always seems to cost extra without a root/jailbreak. It would be nice if carriers would make data plans that share the data from your cell phone.

However, if data plans were cheaper it would be pretty sweet to have one device on an AT
&T data plan and another device on a Verizon data plan so no matter what one of the devices should get a pretty solid connection.

Really my point is, people would probably prefer to have 3g data on their tablets, carriers are just making that not practical and too expensive for the average user.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:35:00 +0000

the simple fact is unless you travel for business or work outside all day with a need of a computer there is no need for a 3G tablet. It’s a waste of $30+/month, especially when the majority of tablet owners already have a smartphone that they are already paying this fee for.

By: geolemon

geolemon — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:15:00 +0000

The article says “use”, but I think it means “capability for”, based on the categories.
What would be more revealing would actualy be “use” numbers.

For example, sure, you can buy an iPad that’ll do 3G. And you get it, with no contract. So you don’t need to pay for it, you don’t need to use it, if you decide that you are fine with wifi.
That would be one 3G device that was in reality used wifi-only.

I suspect there are many of these. I’d even suspect the majority of these!
And that would mean that rather than 75% of the tablets being “wifi only”, that in terms of actual use it would likely be higher, maybe closer to 90%.

I’ve always wondered “who would pay the astronomical data charges that these carriers charge – for a TABLET??” It’s ludicrous. And from the chart above, I’m clearly not alone in that.
But I suspect even these numbers are skewed in the carrier’s favor, if showing devices that are “capable of” cellular data, rather than actual usage.

By: Gtkail

Gtkail — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:58:00 +0000

The “cellular use shrinking” as measured by the NPD Group can also be seen in J.P. Morgan’s analysis of only about 800 megabytes of monthly usage between both iPhone and non-iPhone users. The 800 average MBs includes about 500 MBs that carriers initiate as downloads to monitor user behavior like Carrier IQ or to spam offers of third parties. Most mobile data connectors learn like I did with Verizon that after the first month or 30 day customer return period the LTE connection is replaced with 3G boot-up and constant disconnects in shifting to 4G. Like the J.P. Morgan’s study of 800 average MBs of usage, I only got about 800 MBs of connections after the 30 day return period with Verizon hogging about 500 MBs with so-called network updates that actually were spam from their third-party of Smith Micro Systems. And LTE connections to tablets have mobile numbers that Verizon uses to download text message spam. The spam are disguised in the Verizon Access Manager VZAM by Smith Micro. No tablet user with a family or business wants to receive the gambling and other inappropriate spam from Verizon and Smith Micro.

By: Enricx

Enricx — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:56:00 +0000

Probably just in USA. I have data connection for iPad for €3 on top of iPhone data plan (Movistar Spain) or free with premium data plan. Just sayin’

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:50:00 +0000

Not a shock… unless your company pays for it you are an idiot to waste money on a 3G plan for a tablet. Rooting/jailbreaking your phone to get free tethering or even paying for the tethering option are better deals