Sidecut Reports

Om said it best in less than 140 characters: “If i had to buy an iPad, I would buy a WiFi one with a Sprint MiFi. Who needs to blow money on a crappy AT&T 3G connection.”

His late Wednesday tweet summed up perfectly my reaction to the Apple iPad’s pricing for a model with connectivity to AT&T’s 3G cellular service: Why would you pay an extra $130 “3G tax” for the privilege of connecting one device to a network whose underpinnings are still suspect? Especially when you can get a mobile Wi-Fi router, either in the slim 3G-only version or in the beefier, brawnier hybrid 3G/4G configuration — and have better connectivity for your iPad and four other devices?

From AT&T’s standpoint, the pricing structure makes sense — by making it a high leap over the base iPad price, you can guess many folks will opt not to spring for a 3G version, especially since (unlike an iPhone) this device is primarily designed for content consumption or creation, and not necessarily for communications. (Though we fully expect Andy A to be the first to use it in an airborne Wi-Fi/VoIP configuration)

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Nothing like a fun rumor to keep things cooking during the normally dormant holiday season: Hearing more about the rumored “Google Phone,” which TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington now says might be a “data only, VoIP driven device,” and thinking that it sounds like something built for WiMAX, especially so since Google is after all still a major investor in WiMAX provider Clearwire.

Though Google did not participate in the latest funding round for Clearwire, we’ve been waiting for the Android shoe to drop into the WiMAX market — and it would seem to make sense that a Google-produced device with WiMAX support might be the way the search giant helps “fund” the Clearwire buildout, by paying itself to put WiMAX connectivity into the device.

Increased data consumption, over-the-top VoIP, and lotsa video — sounds like a prescription that calls for a beefy connection like WiMAX on the back end. For the slow-to-grow Clearwire network, a new cool device like a GooglePhone would be just what the doctor ordered.

UPDATE: Tricia Duryee at mocoNews thinks the way we do. And we agree: Things could get a lot more interesting!

Our second quarterly report on all things Clearwire, the Clearwire NTK October 2009, is now live on the site and ready for download for the low, low price of just $4.95 — that’s correct, four dollars and ninety-five cents. What do you get for five bucks? Here’s a small sampling:

In the October 2009 Clearwire NTK report you will learn:

– Why the Atlanta and Las Vegas market launches, and follow-on launches in smaller cities, have helped Clearwire move from a will-they-ever-arrive to a serious competitor in U.S. broadband markets;

– Why Comcast’s decision to start reselling Clearwire services may have helped Clearwire’s stock price more than double from March to August;

– Why Clearwire is offering discounts and service-price promotions, due to competition from cellular-based offerings like Apple’s iPhone 3 GS;

– Why the cool, small and portable Samsung Mondi mobile Internet device is overpriced and unsuited for Clearwire’s current target market;

– Why Clearwire’s vast spectrum holdings may (finally) help put an end to the aimless speculation about whether or not the company will be able to attract enough capital to finance its aggressive buildout;

– Plus, fun photos from the Las Vegas launch!

There’s more of course, and we’ll have some report excerpts this week as well as excerpts from the behind-the-scenes interviews and research we did on all things Clearwire since our last report back in June. The new report is available for immediate download from www.sidecutreports.com for $4.95. Order your copy today!

If you are a telecom policy wonk/follower/billable hours lawyer, you have to love the style of AT&T as it battles Google for mindshare in the net neutrality tussle, calling Google a hypocrite for doing the same thing AT&T did a couple years ago. Of course, we told you last year that the big telcos would make this issue all about big bad Google, and like Brett Favre throwing last-second TD passes, why change a good game plan if it works?

While we agree with the many commenters and observers out there (as well as Google itself) who are correctly stating that Google’s practice of blocking calls to free Internet sites has nothing to do with net neutrality, we are scoring this one in favor of AT&T, simply because it saw an opportunity to give Google a good kick in the ego, and didn’t hesitate. Like the man says, “rules? In a knife fight?” (Before you enjoy the clip below don’t forget to download our FREE net neutrality report, titled Net Neutrality Phase II: The Battle for 2009, and learn why AT&T and Verizon are trying to paint Google as the big bad evil.)

When we told you this morning that the Samsung Mondi MID was going to be available soon, we didn’t know that soon means now! After chatting with Samsung’s Kim Titus, he told us the device is available now in an unlocked format directly from Samsung for $450 ($449.99 list, $454.94 with shipping). And on Aug. 1, Titus said the Mondi will also be available in Clear stores and Best Buy locations in all live Clearwire markets (Baltimore, Portland, Ore., Atlanta and Las Vegas), at the $450 unlocked price as well as a $349 option with a two-year Clear contract.

We played around with the device a bit here at the Clearwire Las Vegas launch event, and were impressed how well the touch-screen and software keyboard works. There is a hard keyboard too. The Windows Mobile-based device also includes versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint that allow real document creation and editing, not just reading. Add in a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack, include earphones with speaker attached and this device starts to get real interesting. But that’s not all!

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