Achilles heel for Surface tablets

[bobsentell]

USB LTE Verizon stick.

Voila! Surface has cellular connection.

 

[blackprince]

As many have said this "Achilles Heel" as you so melodramatically put it is solved easily with a Wi-Fi hot spot using your smartphone. No need to pad the Surface with needless features.

 

[ieuser]

I have a bunch of geek friends and none of them pay for data on a tablet. I personally use mobile hotspot.

I guess with the Surface pro you could always add an USB air card.

 

[wormy6]

I expect someone will make a windows tablet with cellular connectivity soon. It is just a really niche device that none of the major players wanted to come out of the opening gates with it.

Anecdotal: I know of 3 cellular netbooks purchased by my family and close friends (without first consulting me, foolishly). They were all sold in wireless stores and the people who bought them didn't fully understand what was happening. Basically all 3 netbooks barely got used, and 2 of them may have never been used via the network, but all are running their full 2 year contract. These devices are mostly just a $$ trap. The devices themselves are usually poor quality. There was buyers remorse pretty early on in all cases and the netbooks were just so slow and annoying that none of them got used enough. They should have been returned really, and contracts cancelled. The one I have seen and used myself to try it out was a huge pain to connect, often lost connection, etc. It was a netbook sold by verizon about 3 years ago. I would never recommend one.

 

[stephen_az]

A friend was extremely excited about the Surface tablet and was prepared to preorder one. The only thing holding him back was he had seen no information regarding cellular connectivity. He e-mailed MS and here was the response:

From: Microsoft Store Support [mailto:XXXXXXXX]
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2012 12:31 PM
To: XXXXXXXXX
Subject: RE: SRX1185945955ID - Microsoft Store

Thank you for taking the time to email us at the Microsoft Store. I understand the importance of understanding our new products. I appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

At this time we have no plans to release a version with 3G/4G capabilities.

I am pleased that you have contacted us for assistance. You can also reach us by phone at 1-877-MY-MS-STORE (696-7786) Monday-Friday, 8am-1am EST; 12pm-8pm EST on weekends.

Kyle P.
Microsoft Store Email Support


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Many may yawn and say, "no big deal!", but to completely eschew a cellular option for a tablet offering is not a smart move. I imagine there are many people for whom lack of 3G/4G connection will be a dealbreaker. Laptop users are used to the lack of cellular options...tablet users not so much.

I am really rooting for MS and the Surface devices to be strong and have coattails that will bring Windows 8 Phone to the fore, but I think this is a crucial mistake.

Any thoughts?

There are some for whom it might be a deal breaker but take look at the real numbers on WIFI vs cellular tablet sales and then the proportion that are ever actually activated. Simply put, the large majority of tablet sales across all platforms are WIFI and of the cellular models a strong percentage are never activated which means that are defacto WIFI devices too. You also need to have carriers on board and, in the US, at least two models or you are only capturing a faction of the market. Essentially, you are driving up costs and diluting the number of units you can sell without relying on third party carrier(s) (and cutting them in on the profit). This is at a time when the largest US carrier is clearly pushing share everything and tethering. Yes, you can "add" a tablet for $10 a month and they are pushing that to an extent but they are no longer subsidizing the price of tablets and don't even offer a contract option for the iPad. Altogether, calculations need to be made as to what will have the offer the biggest impact and largest sales. Personally, I think they made the correct choice - demonstrate a market and a successful product and then branch out.

FWIW, I think whatever decision Microsoft made, it would still be criticized anyway. Even the Surface RT pre-order success has been turned into a source of criticism by some alleged industry types. They went from claiming it would not sell to now suggesting people are confused and its sales are going to hurt Windows 8. People can continue on that path and invent Achilles heels or sit tight and see whether any concerns have any real traction. So far that does not appear to be the case and I doubt it will be so in the end....