Jobs: Apple iPad won’t tether to iPhone
Apple fans who purchase an iPad will not be able to tether it their iPhone to prevent having to pay two AT&T subscription plans. And that’s straight from the horse’s mouth, with Apple CEO Steve Jobs answering the question in his usual manner: short and not very sweet.
The iPad is an exciting product which many people are hoping will provide a third alternative to their browsing/media habits. The other two being smartphones and notebooks. But there are still a few questions remaining over the iPad, ones which could directly affect people’s purchasing decisions.
One of which was emailed to Steve Jobs by a Swedish DJ. According to 9to5Mac, he said:
I’ll keep it short. I’m Jezper from Sweden, a long time Apple fan, currently about to replace the very last computer at home with a brand spanking new iMac i7. I’m also awaiting the release of the iPad. However, I have one question:
Will the wifi-only version somehow support tethering thru my iPhone?
Two devices, based on the same OS, with already built-in technology to share one data plan suggests a secondary contract could possibly be redundant. From the look of your keynote, where the iPad sits well between my MacBook Pro and my iPhone, I was hoping the three of them could interact as seamless as possible.
All the best,
Jezper Söderlund
To which Jobs replied:
No.
Sent from my iPhone
Wow. Don’t put yourself out with a detailed reply, Steve.
This is bad news, as it means iPhone owners will now have to either make do with the Wi-Fi-only iPad or pay double bubble for 3G access. Which sucks. And paints both Apple and AT&T in a bad light.
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March 6th, 2010
AT&T is driving business to Sprint.
The hack to allow teathering has been available for some time in the older phone os on youtube.
This hack did not even violate the warrenty as the ability has always been in the software, it is only the lack of AT&T support that has limited the function.
I suspect the tethering hack will be all over the place very soon.
I, myself, have an ‘Overdirve” from Sprint that I use for my business. This gives me 4G service now for as many as six devices (5 wireless+1if a cable is used) so I will buy a a wifi iPad and ditch my ‘ton o bricks’ model HP laptop for business travel. I travel a lot and I am a CEO so I would also like to say that all the pundits predicting that the iPad will not be used in business are 100% wrong. I am the very typical face of a businessman and will have an iPad wifi asap. The IT department reports to me, not me to them.
Jobs has changed the face of computing for the most of us, again. He has finally invented the “noncomputer computer” and that is why all the techies are running scared. Their positions of superiority seated in their mastery of jargon and unimportant details is about to rendered impotent to the rest of us, the bulk of us, who just care about function and content. Jobs has positioned his company to master both of these. The masses of us have and will respond by increasingly buying his products and services.
“Kiss your, computing world, goodbye”. It has never worked to my satisfaction (except when using apple products).
I am gladly lining up for my place in the Apple cloud. Thank you Mr. Jobs.
May 6th, 2010
I don’t want and never willl be feeling AT&T. I would prefer using a Verizon Hot Spot device that I can use for my Macbook pro or iPad. If the functionality was in the iPhone and available on Verison I would have it, but since it isn’t I would rather pay my money to a more dependable network with greater 3G service that I can use for my Macbook Pro, iPad, and itself. I am a big fan of Apple, but AT&T will never get my money. Sprint or verizon are far better options, and hopefully in the near future they will also offer the iPhone with Hot Spot tethering. I am sure Apple’s client base will explode when that happens.
June 26th, 2010
I tether my iPad to my DROID just fine… Haha@!