Awesome: Verizon iPad with Mi-Fi Coming October 28th

What do you get when you combine the fastest launching consumer electronic device of all time with a choice in data providers and a low-cost cloud of sharable wifi everywhere you go? A whole lot of awesome, that's what.

Verizon and Apple announced this morning that the iPad will be sold by Verizon starting Oct. 28 and the offer will include an optional Mi-Fi device - a pocket sized re-broadcaster of a cloud of Wi-Fi sharable by up to four other devices. On the lowest end the Mi-Fi will cost an extra $130 at time of purchase and come with a subscription of 1GB of data for $20 per month. Imagine the iPad parties you're going to have!

 

Getting Apple wireless devices out of the shadow of terrible AT&T coverage is something people have long waited for. Hopefully a Verizon iPad foreshadows a Verizon iPhone, but even if that somehow weren't the case this iPad news alone is a big deal.

Verizon said last week that the first half of 2011 will bring a massive 4G network and a half-dozen smartphones and tablets to its offerings. The company has also begun to take strides to overcome its un-cool image, launching scores of innovative location and network APIs for developers to build new kinds of apps on top of.

Speculation about the long-term, big picture aside, today's news means one thing: If you've got five friends with iPads, only one of them is going to need Verizon Mi-Fi and you'll all be rocking your WiFi iPads together all over town. Perhaps more likely, you'll be able to roll into a place with laptops and no Wi-Fi and say, "Never fear - I have a magic tablet, with Mi-Fi!"

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Teens Still Love Texting, But Mobile App Use is Growing

New data from Nielsen out today delves into the behavior of the youngest mobile consumers: the American teenager. The study further solidifies what we've known for some time - teens are heavy-duty users of text messaging services. No other demographic group texts as much as teens do, with an average of 3,339 texts sent and received per month. (For girls, it's even higher - 4,050 texts per month!)

But the study also revealed that teens are now turning to mobile applications, too, with 38% of teens using downloadable apps like those from Facebook, Pandora and YouTube. And usage in this area is growing, says Nielsen.

Texting Still Popular, Usage Increasing

Not surprisingly, Nielsen found teens text a lot. Any parent who doesn't have their child on an unlimited texting plan is just setting themselves up for failure, it seems. According to Nielsen's data, teens send out more than six messages per every hour they're awake, an 8% increase since just last year.

While females still text more than males (4,050 compared to 2,539 texts, females vs. males), the teen boys (ages 13-17) are still outpacing the other male age groups studied. Young adults (ages 18-24) are in second place overall with 1,630 texts per month.

Texting is also now the number one reason why teens say they get a phone, with 43% reporting this as their primary reason for mobile adoption. Safety, the number one reason back in 2008, has now fallen to second place with only 35% citing this as the top reason.

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Garnter's Newest Hype Cycle: Discuss

Leading global analyst firm Gartner has released its annual Hype Cycle report and it's thought provoking to see where these high-end specialists think various emerging technologies are in their path to mainstream adoption. Tablets, microblogging, cloud computing, machine/brain interfaces (!) and many more are included in this year's report. Gartner believes that emerging technologies get hyped, overhyped, then face crashing disillusionment and are later finally understood as productive, mainstream parts of the world.

Companies around the world pay $2,000 to read in-depth annual reports about the viability of each of these particular markets. Then they make buying and development decisions based on what they read. What do you think of this year's assessments?

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