Why are cellular tablets double the price of WiFi?

[John105]

We deal with industrial tablets, and for the newest generation, 5G is no longer standard as it used to be.

The delta is $211, but the tablet is almost $2k. The actual internal wwan card has to have some cost. What that is, who knows.

Looking at the prices of the A4 we also use (we consider it enterprise grade but disposable--no contract for breakage etc.), It's $819 list (we pay in the 500's) with 5G, and $709 without, or 16% more. This example comes in under the $150 that OP states. imho there is a cost and it's mostly driven by marketing on how to price it. $110 sounds reasonable as that's list price.

question: Why would any consumer even need cellular when likely your phone is 5G and has a free hotspot and essentially unlimited (maybe after 60 gb it slows). Answer: Because it's there

Work imho is different--in many scenarios an employee is not allowed to use their personal device so the work device needs 5G

 

[Rmay635703]

We deal with industrial tablets, and for the newest generation, 5G is no longer standard as it used to be.

The delta is $211, but the tablet is almost $2k. The actual internal wwan card has to have some cost. What that is, who knows.

Looking at the prices of the A4 we also use (we consider it enterprise grade but disposable--no contract for breakage etc.), It's $819 list (we pay in the 500's) with 5G, and $709 without, or 16% more. This example comes in under the $150 that OP states. imho there is a cost and it's mostly driven by marketing on how to price it. $110 sounds reasonable as that's list price.

question: Why would any consumer even need cellular when likely your phone is 5G and has a free hotspot and essentially unlimited (maybe after 60 gb it slows). Answer: Because it's there

Work imho is different--in many scenarios an employee is not allowed to use their personal device so the work device needs 5G

I would Ike to get rid of her cell and go tablet only because she basically never uses it as a cell, only making calls in her home

 

[PandaBear]

I would Ike to get rid of her cell and go tablet only because she basically never uses it as a cell, only making calls in her home

Her Trac Phone is only $29/mo right? $200 extra for a cellular tablet is not a bad deal. You still need a data plan and that might cost no less than her phone plan with tethering. You can shop around for a data only plan and see if you can put a physical sim in for that. You can also check if there are cheaper data plan for your mom to use on the tablet but, she likely won't be paying less than $29/mo unless she doesn't get much data. Carrier knows, they know if you have an ipad plan alone you will blow through your unlimited data much more than a trac phone, so that's why they give you a $29 Trac phone plan but not a $29 laptop or ipad plan, or any tethering for cheap or free.

Again, if you think a new cellular tablet is expensive, a used one might be more realistic of what the market says it is worth. Get an LTE one if you think 5G is too expensive, and upgrade as you need.

 

[Rmay635703]

The iPad mini seems to be the perfect size for her to carry around and it’s big enough she can read it
full size doesn’t fit.

Sadly the days of Apple supporting the mini 2 10 years are long gone.

The Mini 6th gen is already dropped for support,
emergency and security updates seem to be getting rarer for unsupported Apple devices and the 7th Gen Mini seems to be overpriced/disappointing at it’s price point.