Nobody can be perfect, not even Apple / Jobs

Quality is really crappy here in London (UK) where it's supposed to be top coverage. I can't imagine elsewhere. The few weeks I've had to use it were a real pain.

They want people to use the iPhone as a modem. They just need to open up that option...

Apple want customers to use iPhone as a portable internet communicator. If we want to use mobile wireless, we may use WIFI hotspot / buy a HSDPA modern from vendor, therefore, Apple no need to raise the price of their product, and free up more space for the compact machine

honestly who cares? I certainly don't. If I am looking at doing any serious web browsing/work that requires internet access, I generally do it somewhere with a wifi connection/ plug socket for power. If you need email and basic internet for productivity whilst on the move, then apple already has that covered with with the iPhone.

Business users might appreciate it for working on trains etc but to be honest the 3G networking is so sketchy you wouldn't get anything serious done. The only device I see it as viable in is the macbook air, simply because of the lack of ports dongle scenario.

My guess is apple doesn't include it because it would be redundant to around 90% of users.

In South Africa, we pay more for WiFi access or ADSL access than for 3G/HSDPA internet access. And the latter is, believe it or not, in many instances more available and reliable! So I guess it's different in various markets. To give their notebooks real appeal in South Africa, they should have it included.

Lol @ 31 votes for "Dongles are sexy"

How about a simple "show results" button? :)

I second the "who the hell cares" poster. I have never actually met someone who purchased this feature on any computer. I wonder if it is talked about so much, because journalists travel so much. Sort of like the swappable battery. I don't know anyone who needs this either. I estimate users of these two features to be 5% of the population or less. So THAT is why apple does not offer it.

I Bluetooth to my blackberry. Work pays for it. They certainly wouldn't pay for another device with another contract. Aren't we most all in this boat?

Think about it, Apple would have to install an expansion slot in the portable line up. We all know how far expansion slots go at Apple. The slot would be needed to support the various radios the carriers use.

On top of that issue you have to deal with RF transmission which isn't going to be all that hot in an aluminum laptop. In fact I believe there is very limited room for the antennas required in the current laptop designs.

A third issue revolves around the fact that the PC now becomes a radio with more stringent FCC requirements. The machine would need approval for each carriers radio. Notablly dongles eliminate the requirement that Apple gets anything approved.

Arguably 10% of the people probably want 3G connectivity built into their laptop. And, fortunately or unfortunately, 50% of Apple's sales are in the US.

Which means that in the US they're stuck with 5% Verizon 3G + 5% AT&T/T-Mobile 3G -- which require different chipsets. And in a few more years perhaps some Clearwire WiMax.

So, do we raise the price of all machines by $100+ in order to serve those 10% of the people? And do we deal with the complexity associated with needing to find space for yet another antenna set, yet another RF chain, and yet another chipset?

Apple doesn't like options -- especially options that require adding / removing electronic bits to computers (like an internal mini-PCI 3G card). Especially since the data service is mostly over-priced and for 50% of their market (aka the US) still mostly sucks.

In short, 3G cards don't deliver an experience that Apple would be proud of...

But Apple will eventually ship computers with 4G support - probably in 2 to 3 years. Because for that they'll be able to get a single chipset that'll work mostly worldwide. Which won't solve the cost, antenna, or RF problems. But it'll be a lot closer then and Apple will be looking for something else to add to maintain premium pricing.

reinharden

it would be handy to have since where i live (Australia) we have the world's fastest 3G network with speeds of 42Mbit/s by May and i know you can buy a dongle but the one that telstra provides is really ugly so it would be nice to have one built in

The site is obviously biased towards wanting the feature by the way the question is worded, "like PC makers have been doing for years".

Can we see some statistics on these laptops that shows they are selling well compared to similar models without the feature? TBH, I have never heard any of my PC using friends tell me that they have or use this feature. I don't think the feature makes a lot of sense to most people, and the business users that it makes sense for can live in the minority with their add-on cards.

I think this feature set will die as one of those in-between technologies that comes out before the masses are ready for it, and something better comes along when they are.

They would need to build a wireless dongle custom, this dongle, would then be slowly placed within the body of the laptops- resulting in a $4,000 increase in price from the apple store.

3G WWAN built-in would be more of an enterprise feature, I think, and Apple does not seem to be interested in enterprise.

3G WWAN built-in would be more of an enterprise feature, I think, and Apple does not seem to be interested in enterprise.

Here's a theory: Apple's not going to put some treat-of-the-week technology into a laptop that is sold all over the world just because you think it's neat and is available in your area.

WiFi can be had pretty much anywhere. WiMAx, WWAN, and other technologies are sparse. If you need it, get an ExpressCard and put it in your MacBook Pro.

It would be cool if they could get an agreement like the amazon kindle where you just have a high price but you dont have to pay a contract.
"have internet whereever you go"

 To lower the cost to consumers Apple would prefer to not have to support dual 3G chipsets one for 3G EVDO used by CDMA carriers and the other HSPA used by GSM carriers. The reasoning behind this is not only cost but also user functionality. A user can if they want buy an Express 3G data card from their wireless carrier to use on their carrier cellular network once the customer signs on to an eligible data plan or they can use a smartphone to tether their internet connection if their carrier allows it (ie: Rogers in Canada allows tethering on select data plans). I would much rather have Apple work on extending the range and speed of WIFI whether 802.11n or offering WIMAX which is more cost effective for both home and business customers.

WiMax is a joke. Might be good for single cities, but def not a country-wide/global-wide technology. Just wait another year and a half or so and practically any note-worthy carrier will be running LTE, so the whole dual chipset thing won't matter anyway. And actually my previous estimate was a bit off. VZW has said it will start to roll out it's LTE network as soon as Fall of this year!

Not everyone will use it so if Apple had to embed one then they will make it an optional component ...