3G on an Internet Tablet Would be a Mistake

There has been some talk lately regarding 3G networking on the Nokia Internet Tablets, sparked by a poll of interested users. The Tablet Guru has it right: 3G is not needed on the Internet Tablets. Ricky gives some straightforward and concrete reasons why 3G is is superfluous, but I think it would not only be a mistake, it would be a step in the wrong direction.

The tablet represents a revolution in mobile computing, giving the user the ability to access the sites and services he normally would using a laptop, but with the portability of a mobile phone. Not only that, but it can make and receive calls to any phone using Gizmo, Skype, the newly released Fring, or any available SIP service. One of the first questions I am asked when I show someone my tablet is how much does the monthly service cost. They are always amazed when I say nothing and that I have almost no problem getting connected using either the WLAN or tethering it to my phone.

But the revolution is not in the portability and wide range of uses for the phone, the revolution is in the software. The tablets run maemo, an operating system derived from Linux with much of its source completely open, giving people the ability to modify, customize, and create their own applications for the tablet. And beyond that, users can forego Maemo and install Debian, Google's Android, or Mamona on their device. The revolutionary nature of the tablets allows the user to do what he or she wants with it, rather than what the provider (i.e. the network carrier) wants the person to do.

To tie the tablet to the carriers' 3G networks would hobble the tablet, taking a giant leap backwards in the process. It would increase the cost because of additional development time and royalties paid to the holders of 3G networking patents, and it might give those same parties (which are pretty much the networks and the device manufacturers) some say into the direction of the tablet as a device, and we may even see some of the above alternative operating systems go away, or at the very least, installing one of them would render useless the 3G aspects of the tablet.

The Internet Tablet is Nokia's flagship product for the next generation of mobile computing, representing true user freedom from the network providers and it should remain this way.