I really think Nokia could make some money if they sold the 3 devices for use as wireless gateways. What they'd have in common is:

1) a microSD card for storing settings info
2) a USB port, for charging and/or direct power, and offering its microSD card as a USB hard drive, so that a host can access the settings via USB.
3) bluetooth (DUN and PAN, and file transfer for the settings info)
4) a nice battery with decent lifetime
5) bonus points if they make it capable of acting as a wifi base station

(notice: no interfaces for making phone calls, this is strictly a IP interface device)

Then the 3 versions would be:

a) 3G GSM with all of the data speed bells and whistles
b) CDMA2000 with the fastest EVDO/etc. data options
c) WiMAX


Just about every laptop, including linux laptops, could use such a device as their wireless gateway, especially if #5 happens. Plus any random wifi or bluetooth enabled PDA could use it (so the target customer market would be more than Nokia's own internet tablets, but obviously the Nokia IT users would probably gobble them up too ... I know I would).

Given that most of the cell carriers only support their PC-CARD options with Windows, this device would probably be incredibly popular with linux laptop and macbook(pro) owners because it supports them through standard interfaces (DUN, PAN, Wifi). With the wifi option, you might even easily sell them to desktop users (on any OS) who are in locations limited to dialup because they're too far from a central office to get DSL.

You'd just have to make sure that the carriers were going to offer data-only plans for these devices, at reasonable prices. T-mobile, in the USA has the best prices, but Sprint's Wimax would probably have the fastest throughput. As long as those two carriers offered their data only plans (including their unlimited data only plans) I think they'd sell pretty well.


An obvious 2nd series of devices could offer bluetooth phone interfaces, where software on the PDA/Laptop/Desktop could act as a dialer and "headset" for the gateway device. That complicates their role with the carriers (they're suddenly not data-only devices, and thus might have to enter into more complicated rate plans), so I would still want to see the data only versions. Plus, I'm sure people who want that could/would just buy a bluetooth enabled phone. This is really for people who just want a wireless gateway.