{"id":380126,"date":"2010-03-02T13:00:29","date_gmt":"2010-03-02T18:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theappleblog.com\/?p=40043"},"modified":"2010-03-02T13:00:29","modified_gmt":"2010-03-02T18:00:29","slug":"ipad%e2%80%99s-3g-pricing-why-it%e2%80%99s-so-great","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/380126","title":{"rendered":"iPad\u2019s 3G Pricing: Why It\u2019s So Great"},"content":{"rendered":"

As someone who\u2019s followed the wireless industry closely for years, one of the most interesting announcements to come out of the iPad keynote were the wireless plans. The wireless industry in the U.S. has been one of the least consumer-friendly industries for years (just consider the fact that consumers regularly pay<\/a> as much as $1,000 per megabyte for text messages). There has been a slow change in how the wireless industry prices data, however, and the iPad\u2019s data plans with AT&T highlight this.<\/p>\n

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This change first drew my attention when the Kindle was originally released with unlimited data access built into the price. This was a sea change in how cellular data is sold, as the cost basically became transparent for the customer. That\u2019s not to say the customer isn\u2019t paying for it, you are, but there\u2019s no monthly line item that you are aware of. Now, the Kindle, and other e-book readers that offer similar services, are something of an extreme example because of the very small amount of data that\u2019s actually used to send a book to the device. The iPad, however, shows that this isn\u2019t an isolated incident. <\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a close look at the iPad\u2019s mobile data plans. For $15 per month you get 250MB of data transfer and free usage of AT&T\u2019s Wi-Fi hotspot network. For twice that amount you get \u201cunlimited\u201d data (read 5GB per month as is standard in the wireless industry) plus access to AT&T\u2019s WiFi network. Despite what many are saying, that $15 plan is actually a pretty good deal for many people. For example, I\u2019m a heavy iPhone user, so the first thing I do every morning is pull out my iPhone and check my RSS feeds. I have it in my hand and am usually accessing the Internet for hours every day. Despite that, I regularly use less than 200MB of data each month. This is possible because I, like most people, have access to high-speed WiFi networks at home and work, where I spend most of my time.<\/p>\n

Throw in the free access to AT&T Wi-Fi networks and I imagine that most users can get away with that 250MB of use per month without too much trouble. That means that for the first time people can get everywhere access to almost the entire Internet for the same price that dial-up cost a few years ago. Of course for tech geeks like us we\u2019re going to be afraid that we\u2019ll blow past that 250MB pretty quick and probably spring for the $30 per month plan. Even here, however, we\u2019re getting a pretty great deal compared to the $60 per month that cellular companies regularly charge for unlimited data for your computer, even dinky little computers like netbooks.<\/p>\n

Perhaps even more important, however, is the fact that these data plans are available on a prepaid basis and can be cancelled at any time. Up until now, in order to get the privilege of paying $60 per month for 5GB of data for your netbook you would have to pay a couple hundred dollars for a modem. If you want that modem for free you\u2019re stuck signing a contract for two years. The fact that I can get an iPad with 3G capabilities, and then buy service on a month-to-month basis as necessary is pretty great.<\/p>\n

The iPad\u2019s data plans are in fact a major competitive advantage for the device. For other companies to compete effectively in this space they\u2019re going to not only have to put together a device that matches the iPad\u2019s hardware and software experience, but that also matches its connectivity experience. This isn\u2019t going to be easy in the short term, and it\u2019s a clear example of how Apple has been able to leverage its relationship with AT&T to get a pretty great deal for consumers (as long as you don\u2019t live in New York or San Francisco). In the long term you can bet that companies like Verizon, Sprint, HTC and Asus are going to be forced to match or beat the pricing and structure of these plans, and that\u2019s going to be a win for all of us, no matter what device we use.<\/p>\n

Related GigaOM Pro Research:<\/strong>
\n\u2022 How AT&T Will Deal with iPad Data Traffic<\/a>
\n\u2022 With The iPad, Apple Takes Google To the Mat<\/a>
\n\u2022 Web Tablet Survey: Apple\u2019s iPad Hits Right Notes<\/a><\/p>\n

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As someone who\u2019s followed the wireless industry closely for years, one of the most interesting announcements to come out of the iPad keynote were the wireless plans. The wireless industry in the U.S. has been one of the least consumer-friendly industries for years (just consider the fact that consumers regularly pay as much as $1,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-380126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}