Ask HN: Why can't I buy a MacBook that is connected to the cellular network | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why can't I buy a MacBook that is connected to the cellular network

15 pointsCPLX19 comments

This just mystifies me. It's such a spectacularly and obviously useful addition, and technically almost trivial to implement, and yet it doesn't exist. My iPad Pro of course can do it, and so can my iPhone, but the totally maxed-out 16" MacBook Pro can't.

I'm on the road constantly, and the ability to just use my laptop whenever/wherever I want without having to fuss with a hotspot, and to have graceful failover from wifi (like if I'm at a hotel on a Zoom call) would be worth quite a bit.

I know I would pay basically any price for this, and I can't be the only one.

And yet.

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You can pay a price of $200--300 for a mobile cellular hotspot which provides this capability.

That's a hefty premium for a laptop, and is best approached with an external peripheral which multiple devices can share.

<https://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/best-mobile-hotspots>

>a mobile cellular hotspot which provides this capability.

That's Linux or Windows user gibberish.

The point of a MacBook is that it just works. (Just like for iPads, that already offer this feature)

If you have a MacBook, you can afford the 2€/mo option to have a secondary SIM for your device.

"That's cross platform gibberish.

The point of a MacBook is that it's proprietary and should nickle and dime you to death on features that have existed for decades in open standards?"

How hard is it to enable WiFi hotspot on the phone you presumably have in your pocket, and can provide internet access to almost any recent device, without needing Apple to give you the go ahead?

I have that. It sucks.

It’s another thing to charge, another thing to lose, and so on. Also it isn’t connected to the laptop so when you open the laptop you also have to turn it on, wait for it to connect, and so on. Then you have to turn it off when not using it or the battery will die.

Also it doesn’t actually do the thing I mentioned at all, which is serve as a graceful backup to whatever Wi-Fi the laptop is connected to.

As a user experience it’s awful.

And it’s such a common user experience. Like how many people are traveling and working from wherever on their MacBooks these days. It really is inexplicable.

The other place where I've seen cellular modems is for WiFi routers such as the Turris Omnia, which can accept an optional LTE modem. See: <https://www.mybluelinux.com/installation-of-lte-modem-into-t...>

Apple probably won't support this, but it seems to me the Framework laptop might. That ... doesn't seem to be the case presently but might be in future: <https://community.frame.work/t/5g-lte-expansion-card/1606>

There are USB LTE modems as well, for as little as $20 US:

<https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/verizon-4g-lte-usb-modem-uml29...>

Qualcomm is the reason. They charge a royalty of between 2.275% and 3.25% of the net selling price of the device, depending on the cellular mode used.

Yes but, didn't apple purchase Intel's wwan division a few years back? I'd assume they are using this in their phones but I may be mistaken. if they are why not use it in their SOC?

Apple currently uses Qualcomm modems in their devices. Qualcomm's CEO speculated that Apple would be transitioning to their own modems sometime in 2024: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/01/qualcomm-ceo-says-planning-f...

They do it for their ipads

Folks have said: Apple could do it easier on iPadOS, because (with its iOS antecedence), iPadOS has a range of WWAN management features that macOS did not possess.

With the iPad-ification of Macs using Apple silicon, and the ongoing merging of iOS and macOS, this excuse is becoming less and less valid.

Remember the good old days, when laptops could take PCMCIA / PC Card / Express Card peripherals?

Ah yes the good old days of my Sony Vaio with its 2 hour battery life and red-hot undercarriage.

Give me the unexpandabe MacBook Air M2 any day.

     technically almost trivial to implement

Having to split each machine SKU into many to accommodate different regions + carrier locking isn't as "trivial" as you think

They do this with iPads without need ing too many SKUs.

And the iPad is less of a general market device than a MacBook with cellular would be!

I think American companies assume that a cellular connection is too expensive.

I had the same thought for Garmin devices, which have to be paired with the app on your phone to get online function (despite some features using wifi)

If you need the phone with a specific app, you might as well use Strava. At least it's compatible with any phone (Garmin devices can only do the bluetooth pairing with specific models)

Why don't these companies just give a sim card port, indeed.

Well, you obviously wouldn't pay "any price" for this...

I suspect it's a trade-off for Apple and they concluded that people who might need that can easily hotspot through their phone and thus wouldn't necessarily pay hundreds for a built-in cellular modem that would also require a second cellular plan.

I’d pay $1,000 for it.

Why don’t they make that conclusion about the iPad Pro then? Or any other device? Apple makes a ton of devices that have this capability costing a few hundred bucks it just seems nonsensical.

The last time I saw discussion of this people said it had something to do with having to license the chipsets or something but it didn’t seem too compelling of a reason in that context.

The reason has to be commercial. Clearly they think that the business case is not strong enough to make it worthwhile.

> that would also require a second cellular plan.

The world isn't NA

I would totally pay a second plan for that feature.

I already have 2 5G plans at two different carriers, and two phones (I work on Android)

And carriers here often offer a secondary SIM for your tablet or something, because it costs nothing and it's a convenience for some customers.

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