jarrod on 27 January 2011
| greenmedic88 said: I'm sure that in the instance of the NGP, 3G access subscription fees/plans will factor into the hardware pricing, much like current smartphones and 3G enabled devices. |
Possibly, but it depends on carriers. For example the iPad doesn't have any sort of carrier subsidy in America (it's $20 a month subscription no matter what and you have to buy the hardware at full price), and in fact the 3G model is $100 more expensive off the bat too. Kindles build in the subscription cost into their retail pricepoints (so you have "free" 3G, forever) but bandwidth is capped and slow, since it's intended for simply downloading small text files.
In the US at least, only smartphones really seem to get any sort of of subsidies from the network carriers.
