
Apple Tablet Heads to Verizon - raju
http://www.thestreet.com/story/10664179/1/exclusive-apple-tablet-headed-to-verizon.html
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mbreese
I love all of the speculation on a device that no one knows anything about.
And unless that person is Steve Jobs, anyone who says they know anything about
it is lying. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if even Verizon and AT&T didn't
know what was happening.

So some analyst thinks that Apple will use a chip from Qualcomm. That could be
almost anything. Qualcomm makes a lot of chips.

But if I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it would probably be one of their
Gobi chips that does 3G data in both CDMA and GSM. But that doesn't mean it
will be a Verizon exclusive.

I highly doubt that Apple would produce a tablet that would work exclusively
with Verizon. Why? Because of the iPhone. The iPhone is currently only with
AT&T. How many people would want one account for an iPhone on AT&T and another
on Verizon? The Mac ecosystem is self feeding... they want you to keep buying
more Apple gear. Two mobile devices, split between two wireless carriers,
isn't Apple's MO.

That being said, I'm not convinced the fictitious tablet will require 3G data.
Why would it? If it's a media device, you don't want to pull down HD video
over any sort of 3G service. For that, you'd want to stick with wifi.

Okay, so where would this leave us? My guess: a new iPhone that is GSM/CDMA
compatible (Gobi). And then with tethering built in to the phone ( _cough_
AT&T), you can connect your tablet to the phone via wifi to download your
morning paper. This is just as far in left field as any other prediction.

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blasdel
Who says that the customer would need an account with the carrier? I'm not
sure if AT&T does it, but Sprint (Kindle), Verizon (all sorts of industrial
shit), and T-Mobile (Peek) all sell bulk low-use data access to companies for
use in embedded products.

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wmblaettler
I am guessing, if this tablet is for real, it would not be "low-use data
access" device. Web browsing, downloading movies and music, etc all require
relatively high bandwidth.

I was having a discussion about this very subject yesterday with a co-worker,
I brought up the idea of tethering when one is without wifi, I feel this
option would be the most likely. Thus not undercutting iphone sales.

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rbranson
This article is completely baseless. Some analyst at a finance firm thinks
Apple's tablet is going to run on Verizon? What are they basing it on? Oh,
there's nothing you say?

