I did some reading and the prices might not be that bad, especially if carriers figure out a way to offer these on contract and not have it affect current users phone contracts.
First of all, we all need to think like the rest of the world. We need to think of the TCO (Total cost of ownership). This includes the incurring commitment costs.
It is only a worthwhile if you can get a data plan for $20-30 and a subsidy price of $300 or less. Even then, that is highly unlikely.
My Verizon Mi-Fi is $60 a month/5GB. It is $40 a month for 250 MB on Verizon.
So think about it, the normal 5GB data plan is $1440 over a period of 2 years on top of the price of the device. $1440 + 200 = 1660 or $1440 + 400= 1840.
It would have to be 1/2 that. Maybe $30 for 200 megabytes a month with no voice plan.
But I really don't see how any of that is possible because: It does have telephony so you can't just get data-only. It does have a phone dialer.
The subsidy price would still need to be more than the Galaxy phone as quoted by a top-level exec at Samsung to the Korea Times (
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB200...5467060590811950.html?mod=index_to_businesses)
So if we do the math of the TCO cost:
$400 subsidy plus $30 a month/2 yr contract ($720) = $1120
$400 subsidy plus $20 a month/2 yr contract ($480) = $880
$300 subsidy plus $30 a month/2 yr contract ($720) = $1020
$300 subsidy plus $20 a month/2 yr contract ($480) = $780
Lets assume they can get it as low as $200 for the phone on subsidy.
$200 subsidy plus $30 a month/2 yr contract ($720) = $920
$200 subsidy plus $20 a month/2 yr contract ($480) = $680
The above figures are very, overly optimistic. I have not seen any data plan that low for a dedicated device. I am assuming Samsung can strike a deal like that.
They're saying $200-400 subsidy price. In any scenario, it is way, way, way too expensive. I am being overly optimistic with a $20/30 data plan.
Now, the only way this thing will even fly is Verizon offers $5.00 a month (200 megabyte tethering off your Galaxy smartphone). There would be a specific app for Galaxy phone that only allows a Galaxy tablet to tether to it.