Comments on: Sorry, carriers, 9 out of 10 tablets sold are Wi-Fi

By: valery

valery — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 14:34:20 +0000

Am about to get a slate to go with my droid and have tryrd to educate myself by reading everything i get ky hands on,but all these tablets from china have some low prices I is a superpad pc wifi with 3G Usb a good choice or do i bite the big bullet for apple or samsung?

By: JR

JR — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 04:06:27 +0000

I bought the iPad 2, and when I figured out that it did have GPS, I became infuriated. But then, my Asus Transformer updated to Android 4.0, and now I feel it is a much better device than my iPad 2. AND, it has had GPS the entire time. I have T-Mobile with 5GB of 4G and love it. My cellphone, the HTC Sensation 4G, allows for mobile hotspot without any extra costs on my cellphone bill. I still just cannot believe my iPad doesn’t have the GPS. I let my kid use it, and mount my Transformer to my car Dash and it is totally Rad!

By: theandroidfiles

theandroidfiles — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 18:24:23 +0000

The carriers have only given thought as to extract wealth from their non-business customers. Big mistake in a down economy. Carriers should be thinking hard about the value proposition and how they can help increase consumer wealth. Silly to think they can extract more blood from a turnip. Every dollar wasted on useless gadgets and services, will come back to haunt them in the long run.

By: Gary

Gary — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 01:19:28 +0000

The other factor not mentioned here is that, unlike smartphones, the vast majority of tablet usage occurs on the sofa at home, where there is no need for 3G/4G. Most tablet owners I know, including myself, don’t really *use* the tablet while on the move — instead, we simply carry it between locations that provide sit-down-lean-back usage; such locations almost always have Wi-Fi available. Smartphones, on the other hand, are frequently used while on the go (walking, standing in line, on public transport, etc.), making 3G/4G a necessity.

By: Granite T. Rock

Granite T. Rock — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 01:30:26 +0000

Since my cell phone with a good data plan can act as a hotspot at no extra charge my ipad has no need for 3G. This is ignoring that fact that 99% of my tablet use is at home where my wi-fi is anyways.

By: Wim

Wim — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:39:02 +0000

I’m happily using a Windows Phone on T-Mobile, so can’t attempt any tethering with an iPad. I decided to order an iPad3 with Verizon LTE as my first tablet, so it’ll be my new learning toy. Part of the reason I decided on the Verizon model was due to the fact that Verizon allows tethering for data, which would allow me to use either my cell phone or my ipad as a hotspot if I need.

By: Tablet Guy

Tablet Guy — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:48:54 +0000

Agreed, $130 is quite a bit for the mobile data hardware. Especially since most places have free Internet anyways. I just use my ipad around the house anyways and use my phone when I’m out and about.

By: Rajesh

Rajesh — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:33:12 +0000

I am not sure how the tablet sales numbers were arrived at. According to the chart on Tablet sales 25 million units would have been sold in Q3. But Apple’s global tablet sale was 11.12 Mil units. Even WebOS and Samsung combined cannot bridge the gap to 25 million units. The chart may be a cumulative use data and not a tablet sales data. Recent report from Comscore indicates 91.5% of iPad traffic is from Wifi and rest from Cell while 63% of android tablets use wifi and rest are on 3G… I don’t think Apple provides breakup between wifi and 3G units sold. Going purely by connection type ignores people who pick up a 3G model with a recurring plan (includes me and half a dozen of my friends). I think every other estimate I have seen points to a 60/40 for ipad 1 and 50/50 for ipad 2 split. Chetan is the expert here and I could be missing something here. Any comments?

By: Alexander Bougakov

Alexander Bougakov — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:43:13 +0000

The author obviuosly hasn’t heard about “carrier Wi-Fi offload”. Dear GigaOm, could you please next time write about something you at least remotely have a clue?

By: Adrian

Adrian — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:56:50 +0000

I thought with iOS 5 or the last iteration of iOS 4, if you tethered your iPhone to the iPad, your iPad could use the phones GPS.