Originally Posted by
cordelli
While that's certainly true, that's why you offer it as an option to people. Those who want just WiFi just buy the WiFi version. Those who want 3G or 4G buy the 3G or 4G version.
No, wait, in this case they will have to buy another companies product.
The vast majority of tablets (like 90%) are sold without 3G and 4G in them, but at least others are offering options for people who want it. For Microsoft to think they will take over the market with an expensive device, where a good portion of the memory is already in use, with limited expansion capabilities, and no alternative but WiFi is just plain silly.
No wait, they do have that snazzy magnetic keyboard though, that will save it.
Offering it as an option only increases manufacturing costs.
I heard Microsoft explain why they don't have a 3G version of the surface, and they said in doing their market research, only 1/3 of the tablets sold have 3G capabilities, and out of that 1/3, only 1/2 ever activate that service, so in their opinion, the market for the 3G is quite small. I haven't bothered to look and see how accurate those numbers are, just quoting them. Now certainly some of that is trying justify their decision not to offer the 3G tablet, but speaking to my own experience, I wouldn't pay for the monthly service to get a data, and have no interest in paying more for a tablet that is capable of it.