any hints on lte radio coming?

[Intranetsites]

Yes I would upgrade from my surface 3 to a Surface Book or Surface 4 if it had mobile connection for lte or 4g.

Am i dreaming here or not?

 

[GreyFox7]

I believe the refrain of Paul Revere would be: The British are NOT coming, the British are NOT coming.
and so... The LTE is not coming, the LTE is not coming.

 

[hughlle]

There just isn't a big enough market for such devices to justify it. IMO of course.

 

[sharpuser]

The collateral manufacturing, and ongoing administration of direct air connections are bad enough. And devices with direct air connections would probably not be welcome in the typical corporate installation. And the battery drain is bad enough already.

Instead, solutions already exist with tethering and WiFi hotspot connections, with established manufacturing and administration.

 

[Wayne Orwig]

Personally I don't want the extra monthly bill or battery suckage. I just quickly tether it to my existing smartphone on those rare occasions.

 

[suave]

Would love an lte radio. Tethering is not an adequate replacement since lte just works. No fussing around with your phone, no troubleshooting when your laptop can't see the phone wifi connection. MS and intel needs to get this in more windows machines.

 

[kundas1]

Would love an lte radio. Tethering is not an adequate replacement since lte just works. No fussing around with your phone, no troubleshooting when your laptop can't see the phone wifi connection. MS and intel needs to get this in more windows machines.

fussing with phone? its just "1 button" that's all... its never been so easy to tether a device nowadays and I have to laugh at posts like this... if your too lazy to press 1 button then you got more problems to worry about if your device has LTE... just sayin.

 

[suave]

Every phone I have requires me to log in, bring up that button and click on it verses just being on all the time. If lte wasn't important then Apple wouldn't be making iPads with that feature and selling it at a price premium.

 

[hughlle]

Every phone I have requires me to log in, bring up that button and click on it verses just being on all the time. If lte wasn't important then Apple wouldn't be making iPads with that feature and selling it at a price premium.

I swipe down, click hotspot, finished.

This isn't about lte being important or not, it is that there is no genuine market for it to make it worth the time and effort. Microsoft also make a surface with lte, but the reality is that the vast majority of people don't see a point in paying yet another monthly fee for something their phone can already do for them.

There are 101 features that "some" people would like, but it doesn't mean it makes economic sense for a company to adopt those desires.

 

[kundas1]

I swipe down, click hotspot, finished.

This isn't about lte being important or not, it is that there is no genuine market for it to make it worth the time and effort. Microsoft also make a surface with lte, but the reality is that the vast majority of people don't see a point in paying yet another monthly fee for something their phone can already do for them.

There are 101 features that "some" people would like, but it doesn't mean it makes economic sense for a company to adopt those desires.

exactly on all points

 

[suave]

Swiping and logging in and troubleshooting the connection isn't something I want to do every time I want to get on the internet. I'm happy for you that you enjoy the exercise but its 2016 and I would rather cut out needless activities. Its why a bought a laptop that could be my work computer, laptop and tablet in a pinch. If it was important to include in their low end models then why wouldn't it be important enough to include at the higher end. The reality is that intel hasn't gotten their lte stack together like manufacturers like QUALCOMM have and once they do and they include it as part of a system on a chip, it will be a major selling factor for future laptops. Also the cost of tethering is about the same as adding a data sim to your plan anyway, at least it is at AT&T.

 

[hughlle]

Possibly because the surface 3 is ultra portable, the surface book is anything but? I dint know, maybe email Microsoft.

And I dint know what you've done to your device to be talk I g about logging in and trouble shooting. I hit the hotapit button. It works. Every time. Flawlessly. This is 2016, why would I need an additional contract for something my phone does perfectly for free?

The very short answer is that there probably won't be an lte option, because there isn't a market that justifies it. Deal with it. Why can't MS offer every coy with every ram and sad combo? Because they have done a market analysis and it most likely makes no financial sense to have so many SKUs. Microsoft are not Apple, they have learnt the hard way to be cautious with their stock levels.

You could just buy a dongle if it is that important. Question. How many laptops do Apple make that have SIM slots? Why is that?