Vodafone have been in talks with Dell, HP, Fujitsu Siemens and Toshiba as well as other top laptop manufacturers, to embed their laptops with sim cards that will supply 3G, HSDPA connectivity to their network. It would basically be an internet dongle, but the dongle would be replaced by the embedded sim card - 'sim'ple!
More and more customers are using their laptops online for personal and business reasons that the mobile networks want to wean people off Wi-Fi and fixed line connections, and instead offer pre-loaded 3G laptop sim cards for instant internet access. The main area of interest for the sim embedded laptops is from business customers.
Unfortunately as the embedded laptops are new on the market there is a ?120 premium on top of the standard laptop price. The high price has unfortunately put people off the laptops in the past. Once the laptops are produced in large numbers, and therefore hardware prices begin to fall the sim card embedded laptops will become more affordable and popular with customers.
If sim card embedded laptops prove popular it could result in the networks subsidising laptops the same way as they currently subsidise mobile phone handsets on monthly contracts. Unfortunately networks are still reluctant to take on any of the costs, however they may offer incentives if their mobile broadband (sim card) is used in the laptop.
