Sure, we were the first site to point out that the old 2G iPhone could sip Wi-Fi from a 3G phone. People laughed… until they tried it.
Then, we were the first to show how the iPod touch could replace your iPhone using the same trickery… saving you hundreds each year. People didn’t laugh that time around.
But, Novatel hopes that you won’t figure out how to sling Wi-Fi from your cell phone. Instead, they want you to buy a Mi-Fi. It’s a Wi-Fi router that fits in your pocket, packing an EV-DO radio and a battery to keep it powered. Plus, with a DC adapter, you can leave it charging in your car, and stick it in your pocket when you want Wi-Fi outside of the car.
And, we have to admit, it has us interested… but for the unnecessary extra $60/month in mobile broadband costs.
Our advice to Novatel: You’ve made the perfect hardware, now get the business model down. Convince carriers that the Mi-Fi should cost less than a typical mobile broadband card. It’s pretty much un-questioned on the staff that anything above $40/month, and the tech-savvy will stick with their Wi-Fi-routing PDAs. But, really, until you get it down to $30/month (which is what AT&T charges for a data-only PDA plan), you’re not going to get those folks… especially in this economy.
Still, My-Fi could have a huge niche in the not-so-tech-savvy… and with car manufacturers that want a value-added approach, with few strings attached.
I’d do this for $10/month, maybe even $15. Pandora in the car through my iPod Touch would be the hotness!
I wouldn’t call it ripping off. WMWifirouter has been around for a while. Also, people were using stand-along batteries to power a Cradlepoint 3G router. After that, Cradlepoint offered a battery powered 3G router.
The headline was mostly a joke. We didn’t mean to argue that we had patented Wi-Fi slinging.
I will tell you one thing:
the 3g data plans from ANY company are a complete joke. 5 gb limit? that is not internet.
the pure, extremely expensive, data plans on the other hand (for cards) are worth the money.
my cable connection costs me 56 a month plus taxes.
if you can get me a wireless connection with similar (not equal) speeds, I would be willing to pay more. as long as there is no limit.
and finally: no one will use the Mi-Fi for a phone or a PDA. they will be using it for their laptop.
that is what it is for. it is not for checking email and the weather.
it is for watching streaming movies on a machine that can actually produce high quality sound and video.
it is for playing multiplayer games.
it is for downloading “small” (on the order of 100 mbs) files.
this cannot be done with a PDA phone/3g phone wifi connection.
why? becuase it may be fast comming down, but it is not fast between the phone and the computer/pda. eg: the bottleneck is on YOUR side.
[…] EV-DO, Verizon, Wi-Fi At CTIA, PhoneNews.com covered the Novatel MiFi mobile router while noting the concept was inspired by the trailblazing method to […]
Once OS 3.0 comes out and ipod touch Bluetooth is enabled, will it ever be possible to use the Bluetooth to piggyback off a verizon phone and connect to the internet using the phones 3g?