Sharing 3G: This Is Where the iPad and iPhone Simply Suck

Here in the U.S., iPhone owners still can't tether their iPhones to MacBooks to get on-the-go Internet access for their Macs or PCs. They can't do it for expensive monthly plans, nor can they do it via a new iPad-like pay-as-you-go option, either. It's 2010 and there are two facts that blow my mind: The iPad won't let you tether its data to a MacBook, and you can't use your iPhone connection to tether to an iPad. At least in some other countries in the world with more robust networks, iPhone tethering is available.

Meanwhile, here in the U.S., what have we got? Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and AT&T (NYSE: T) have created irritating islands of super-cool technology that are isolated from flexibility. This astounds me.

We've got two giant companies here, and still, nearly three years after the iPhone was first delivered, it's like we're still operating in 2007.

Envious of Palm!?

It's enough to make me envious of Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus owners on Verizon -- they play a US$30 monthly data charge, just like iPhone owners, but they also get to use their smartphones in a really smart way: as a mobile WiFi hotspot! And since April, this extra ability has been free. I'm not positive on the Sprint (NYSE: S) customer pricing, but at least Sprint also offers these Palm owners the ability.

Of course, many Android smartphone owners can turn their phones into WiFi hotspots and/or tether them with their laptops, too. And for (typically steep) monthly costs, some Nokia (NYSE: NOK) smartphones and BlackBerry devices have allowed tethering for years.

For all the Apple haters out there, this is just another big reason to laugh at the company in Cupertino and jeer at the poor Apple product lovers like me who are left out in the cold, waiting and waiting and waiting.

AT&T Is Dragging Apple Down

Overall, while traveling, I've had pretty darn good coverage out of AT&T, which makes me wonder if most of the United States isn't getting a tethering option because the AT&T networks in San Francisco and New York suck so badly. You'd think AT&T could offer it in select regions that aren't hampered by tens of thousands of giddy iPhone users sucking all the high-density population AT&T bandwidth.

I walked into my local AT&T store, and I was promptly welcomed by an employee. I said, "I'll be traveling just a bit this summer, and I need a USB device that I can plug into my laptop and get Internet access -- but I'll only need it a few times, so I don't need a long-term contract. Do you have something that can help me out?"

The guy got a pained look on his face, and while he tried to tell me how it could be possible if I bought a $249 USB stick, then activated the service, then canceled the service, then activated the service, etc., paying the reactivation fees each time, his non-verbal expressions were begging me to interrupt. So I put him at ease and said, "No, sorry, that's just going to be way too expensive for what I need." He would have sold me something if I had been really stupid, but to his credit, he let it go.

So, what if a guy just wants to slip away for a few days in a cabin on a lake, and what if that guy just needs a real browser and real multi-tasking and a real keyboard to get just a little work done so he can enjoy himself away from the office in the cabin, which happens to belong to somebody else, and to which he's just lucky to get to visit?

Well, he can't do it with AT&T and the iPhone. Sure, the iPad is pretty amazing -- I got my hands on one for some quality time last week, and while it's awesome and surprisingly heavy, I'm still not ready to shell out for one. Besides, to try to use the iPad for an intense burst of multitasking-necessary work, I'd have to get a real keyboard accessory and down a six-pack of beer just to keep from screaming at it. Light work? Excellent. Email? Wahoo! Interacting with Web-based forms, content management systems, cutting and pasting? No freaking way. Sorry, Apple, your Mac OS X Expose feature -- kind of important to me, it turns out. If I'm able to leave the office, I don't want to be on an iPad for any length of time working. All it would do is remind me that I'm sitting somewhere struggling with a piece of technology and wasting my life.

Shut Up and Pay!

Of course, this is an easy solution, right? I can buy a USB device that connects to AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon's networks and get easy, fast Internet access to my laptop. If I sign up for two-year contract, I can get these little devices for "free." The monthly costs start at $40 per month -- $480 a year for something I only need several times a year. I really don't like paying for things I don't need, for services that overlap with my my home broadband and won't replace it anyway, and I don't like being forced into superfluous contracts, especially when, jeez, I ought to be able to do this with my iPhone already.

Of course, I could buy one of these devices for $100 to $250 and use some of the newer pay-as-you-need plans. Virgin Mobile has a nifty plan, but Virgin uses Sprint's network, and Sprint isn't exactly known for extending off the highly-paved path. AT&T is OK, but AT&T's plan is $60 a month ($720 a year) for access that's far from unlimited. Verizon, as near as I can tell, has some of the best coverage in outlying areas, but again, Verizon is charging a premium for it: $15 for 75 MB over 24 hours or $30 for 250 MB over a week or $60 for 500 MB over one month.

And what about the Novatell Wireless MiFi devices that let you create a mini WiFi hotspot for a half-dozen or so friends? Awesome!

The MiFi is so cool, in fact, that I just saw the Sprint version used as a (likely) product placement in last week's Fox episode of 24 -- Chloe and Arlo used one to create their own private little network within CTU so they could hide their data work from the bad guys who were trying to kill Jack Bauer.

But the MiFi price? It's not all that consumer-friendly. Plans on Verizon, for example, start at $40 a month for a piddling 250 MB of data with a big contract. I'm pretty sure that Chloe and Arlo were using a MiFi unit with a much more expensive monthly contract plan -- they were transferring video files.

Who Needs the iPad with 3G?

Pretty much everyone and their tech-savvy dogs believes the only reason iPad 3G owners have the option of using a pay-as-you-go data plan with AT&T is because Apple CEO Steve Jobs sent the boys who are pretending to be executives at AT&T a sticky note that said, "The iPad WiFi + 3G will offer AT&T data services without a contract. Period."

Still, as nice as this is, I know a guy who looked over the options and said, "You know what, this is silly, too." Basically, to get an iPad with 3G built-in, it's a $130 premium at the moment of purchase. Plus, if you actually use the AT&T data services, even just a few times a year, you're talking a minimum of $50 or so, if not quite a bit more than $360 for unlimited data for the year.

My iPad-owning friend -- who is astoundingly enamored with the slab of flickering glass -- realizes that AT&T's deal is not that fantastic. If you're going to spend that kind of money, why not just buy a MiFi device, which is really small and light, and use that for the iPad? In fact, why not use it for a whole family of iPads? Plus a MacBook and the kids' iPod touches? "I could be 'The Mobile WiFi Guy'!" he said, delighted with the idea.

Back to Consumers on a Budget

Wouldn't it be smart and reasonable for AT&T to offer some sort of teeny little tethering plan? Say, 250 MB for $15 for a month of use, with no contract, just in case an iPhone owner wanted to hit the beach a few times during the summer and keep up with their tenuous recession-surviving day job at the same time? Does AT&T have any idea how much loyalty and love this might build with iPhone customers who will, someday, have other choices? Doesn't AT&T realize that iPhone owners are slowing lifting their heads from their iPhone screens and are realizing that there's more to mobility than just a phone?

I mean, we are nearly half-way through 2010, are we not?

As a consumer, I look at all this and I'm baffled. Where are the plans that make sense? The ones that don't require a ton of overlapping cost for overlapping services?

The answers, of course, are increasingly pointing away from AT&T, and because of AT&T, the answers are also pointing away from Apple's best products.