Will the new Air include 3G?

[Mr. Retrofire]

Will the new Air include 3G?

Why should they (from Apples point of view)?

"Use your iPhone 5 and iOS 5!" -- Steven Paul Jobs (WWDC 2012)

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Unless you think Steve Jobs and/or Mystic Meg surf these forums, i'm not sure what sort of answer you expect to that question...

Mhh...

...a MacRumor?

Not unlikely on MacRumors, right!?

 

[Kentochan]

I'm going to have to say no for this one. If Apple really wanted to implement 3G technology into the MBA, they probably could have done so even a couple years back. But they had their reasons to hold back, so they probably won't do it this time around.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

I'd LOVE to have an Air with a combo 3G/GPS chip in it!!!

You can forget GPS in a Alu-case.

 

[57004]

You can forget GPS in a Alu-case.

The keyboard and trackpad aren't made of metal. In theory the trackpad would be a large enough window for the GPS signal as most GPS receiver antennas (and the signal's wavelength) are way smaller than that. The keys themselves would probably not suffice as the key holes in the metal grid is smaller than the signal's wavelength so it would block the signal or at least attenuate it too much.

Behind the display would be another option (and similar to the iPad / iPhone setup) but it's not facing the sky so we can probably rule that out. Also the display lid is too thin for that to fit.

Now that I mention it, the trackpad is of course right at the thinnest part of the MBA so I don't see it happening either. But if the MBA wasn't so thin I think it could be possible. Don't see a real benefit in having a GPS receiver in a laptop though.

 

[Hankster]

I guess I should have rephrased the question. It's more a question of why doesn't Apple include 3G? I have 3G in my iPad 2 and frankly find myself using it a lot more than I thought I would.

I personally think it would be great to have it built into an Air.

PS: I wouldn't be surprised if someone from Apple does peruse these forums. It's a goldmine of user feedback and ideas.

I would say no. I don't see Apple forcing relationships with phone companies. They already have the iPhone and iPad with ATT and VZ.

 

[DeViAnThans3]

I don't expect to see Apple include a 3G slot anytime soon in MBA, because most users won't find a good use for it. (Maybe in option? Who knows...)

Would love to see it though. I use 3G quite a bit with my iPad (and due to bad coverage, it's usually Edge down here), and I can imagine it can be very handy when having a mobile laptop like MBA.

For people who use the MBA as a real portable laptop (for example sales reps), I can imagine that they look for a cleaner 3G solution than MiFi's etc.