Steve Jobs proudly announced last month that the Apple tablet aka iPad would be sold Unlocked, and in US they have a prepaid option with AT&T for unlimited data. With no subsidies like iPhone involved, the starting price of $499 is pretty impressive and this opens up immense potential for iPad’s – if sold with a carrier contract. And as the situation currently is, the global market will surely encash this opportunity, with or without an Apple tieup.
Apparently Hutchison Austria has already announced to sell the iPad under contract, lowering the price if the iPad by as mush as 333 euros ($456) for you. The fascinating bit here is that Hutchison Austria isn’t selling the 3G iPads to you with a contract, but instead giving you a 3G modem called i-Mo that acts as a portable WiFi router that has its own 3G connection. The 5GB monthly connection will cost you 29.9 euros ($41), and you will have to sign a 2 yr contract. Pretty cool I say, considering that the iPad base model is just $499, even if it launches as a $100 premium worldwide, with such schemes you can grab one for as low as $104!
But that’s not the whole point. This Hutchison offer is just an example of what Apple can really offer you with carrier tieups. Though it seems unlikely as of now that Apple would tieup with carriers for the iPad 1st gen, instead they might have their own holy plans to see some synergy with iPhone v4.0. However, just incase it happens, you know what would be killed: the netbooks!