Mobile world prods tablets to get off the sofa

If you want to go mountain biking, why take any computer to drag you back out of the enjoyment of being in the wilderness?

One example of profiteering: Apple charge an extra $130 for an iPad with cellular capability, yet I can buy a mobile phone for less than $10, hence the components cannot cost more than $10. Plus, in Japan at least, the mobile phone operators charge an arm and a leg for service. Too much greed and not enough need.

The reason people buy tablets (myself included), is because they're consumption devices - reading & movies. Even at 8 ~ 9 inches, most are small enough to fit in a bag and light enough to hold for long periods of time. People do not want to be locked into 2+ year contracts on a consumption device. That's why you buy one and use it at home / tether it to a 4G device.

These guys have no idea...

You can also use them for demos (school and work etc). Good for taking down notes or showing on larger screens with the right apps/cables.

I think for the majority of users it all comes down to costs. Most of us are already paying exhorbitant monthly fees for phones and wi-fi. Now they want to stick yet another monthly charge for a 4G network that is really too slow to do the things we want? No thanks. Besides, if people are going to watch videos or play games, they're not really being mobile at the time, are they!

Instead of paying extra monthly for additional device on the data plan, people just tether their tablets to their phones (which they carry with them all the time anyways).

It's like the router argument: instead of paying an extra monthly lease for another modem, just buy a router to connect more devices to that one single modem.

Unless mobile operators make that cost difference insignificant enough and tablet makers make 3G/4G capability built-in like WiFi (instead of additional cost), then people will just be satisfied keeping their phones as the only cellular-capable device.