Microsoft’s Surface tablet said to be Wi-Fi only at launch; no 4G, no 3G, no 2G, not even 1G

“Microsoft Corp.’s Surface tablet computer, unveiled this week to compete with Apple Inc.’s iPad, will initially go on sale without a connection to mobile-phone networks, according to two people familiar with the matter,” Ian King and Dina Bass report for Bloomberg. “Microsoft is equipping the device with a Wi-Fi short-range connection, said the people, who declined to be named because the full specifications of the new product have yet to be made public.”

“Apple, the market leader in tablets, began selling a new iPad in March with the fastest cellular connection, known as long-term evolution, or LTE [4G],” King and Bass report. “Since it first went on sale in 2010, the iPad has had the option of a mobile-phone chip, which lets users access the Internet almost anywhere there is network coverage. Apple also sells a Wi-Fi-only iPad model.”

“Microsoft’s decision may enable it to keep costs down, said Ben Bajarin, an analyst at technology consulting firm Creative Strategies. Still, it could curtail the company’s efforts to promote Surface as a device you can use anywhere and in any way, Bajarin said,” King and Bass report. “‘The way that Microsoft is positioning this product — that it’s highly mobile but also has the functionality of a notebook — that customer might be more interested in working from any location and not being bound by Wi-Fi,’ said Bajarin.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Ballmer T. Clown punching himself in the faceMicrosoft has gone from not only punching their suffering users in the face daily with their mediocre, frustrating, failure-prone wares to punching themselves in the face, too.

The “customer might be more interested in working from any location and not being bound by Wi-Fi.”

You can say that again, Ben!

Microsloth’s latest debacle, Blurry Ass Tablet™, is going to be more fun than even we expected!

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