LTE modems

[billstesting]

Intel has stated that PC manufacturers are now shipping PC's with LTE modems in Europe and Asia. When will this occur in the USA? When will Apple make MacBooks with LTE modems? I welcome any replies.

 

[kevnich2]

Why would you want this? In a work laptop if your out and about all the time, I can kind of see of the need but if it's a stationary PC - use wifi or hard wired?? I am sure carriers would love it as they'd get even more of your $$ but I don't really see the practical use of having this.

 

[billstesting]

I have a need to work in the middle of nowhere. Short term I plan to use my 5s phone as a hotspot wifi device to connect my 4 year old macbook. I could buy a cellular iPad ect., but
I do not like to use a touch screen device. If I use a touch a touch screen I will come home
and start touching the display on my macbook ( with no results ). I have had that problem
in the past.

 

[TheCrackLing]

You can buy MiFi's or USB LTE Modems already.

 

[billstesting]

I understand the mifi and usb items. But why buy what will soon be obsolete. Another
way to ask my original question is when will PC's and MacBooks be sold in the USA that are as portable as a cellular iPad without any add-on parts?

 

[Cabletek]

I understand the mifi and usb items. But why buy what will soon be obsolete. Another
way to ask my original question is when will PC's and MacBooks be sold in the USA that are as portable as a cellular iPad without any add-on parts?

Becasue you will be locked down to one cellular carrier and it will cost you about an additional $100-$200 for the laptop over one without it?

Mifi's and LTE usb modems are like $35- $50. Its just not economically intelligent in this country.

Maybe if they did not lock them down to one carrier it might be more appealing, but they do right now, so... No one is really wanting this in the corporate world, and without that demand, there is no reason to provide it.

 

[imagoon]

I understand the mifi and usb items. But why buy what will soon be obsolete. Another
way to ask my original question is when will PC's and MacBooks be sold in the USA that are as portable as a cellular iPad without any add-on parts?

You are asking the wrong people. You would need to ask HP, Dell, IBM, Apple, Fujitsu etc. if and when. US normally trails Europe (and large parts of the modern world) when talking about cell phones tech, policy, and devices.

 

[kevnich2]

I understand the mifi and usb items. But why buy what will soon be obsolete. Another
way to ask my original question is when will PC's and MacBooks be sold in the USA that are as portable as a cellular iPad without any add-on parts?

Actually this applies less for mifi's. If you get a computer/laptop with an LTE module embedded, you generally cannot upgrade this later on when new tech becomes available as most computer OEM's lock them down. This is the specific reason why, economically, it's better to go with either usb or mifi that you can easily upgrade later on.

As far as your second question, I don't ever see pc's or laptops being sold that fit that description. The market trend right now is to simply buy a tablet itself and use that to remotely connect to your work space that's in the cloud so if your tablet gets lost or stolen, you're data and information is still safe.

 

[tomt4535]

I have an LTE modem in my laptop right now. HP, Dell, IBM, etc. offer them. They are built-in mini-PCIe cards. Of course, like everyone said, you are usually locked down to one carrier and the mifi/usb modem gives more flexibility, but what you want is offered currently in the US. I'm sure there are some touchscreen convertible ultrabooks that might fit the bill as well. You might need to look at the business lines of the laptops, rather than the normal cheapo consumer laptops, but they are available.

 

[billstesting]

Thanks for the info tomt4535. Is this true for MacBooks?

 

[kevnich2]

Only business orientated laptops have this capability typically. My dell latitude I use for work has an LTE module from verizon in it as do business line of HP, Lenovo, etc. I don't think apple puts these in any of their systems and probably won't, they like keeping their systems as thin/light as possible. Best bet for a macbook would be a mifi from whatever provider you use. Mifi's have more advantage over built in - can connect multiple systems at once and their easily changed if you need to upgrade later on.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I'd much prefer a MiFi, since I wouldn't have to replace the LTE modems in three computers and a printer every time I switched carriers.

LTE might be ok for an internet connection for a single computer, but people - even "lusers" - are increasingly using PAN/WAN tech.