Verizon will be the only provider supporting Samsung’s new Chromebook Plus V2 LTE, Samsung confirmed. Verizon will release pricing for its LTE service for the gadget at a later date.
Although Samsung’s new Chromebook is certainly not the first laptop/tablet-style device to feature built-in LTE capabilities, it nonetheless signals increased efforts by the wireless industry to install LTE connections into devices beyond phones.
As noted by The Verge, Samsung’s new Chromebook Plus V2 LTE essentially stands as an LTE version of the Chromebook Plus that Samsung announced earlier this year—and that device was itself an upgrade to Samsung’s previous Chromebooks. Nonetheless, Samsung’s Chromebook Plus V2 LTE features a two-in-one design that allows users to manipulate the device as either a laptop or a tablet; the gadget features a 1 megapixel front-facing camera, 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage.
Notably, the LTE version costs $600, or $100 more than the non-LTE V2's price.
Again, Samsung’s Chromebook Plus V2 LTE is but one of many laptops and tablets that feature LTE connectivity. Others include the Microsoft Surface Pro LTE, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon and the Apple iPad.
Moreover, the trend of building cellular connections into laptops is by no means new; the noisy but brief trend of netbooks also touted built-in 3G connections.
But carriers continue to work to stick cellular connections into a growing range of devices, from pet trackers to smartwatches to automobiles.
The effort seem to be paying off. For example, Chetan Sharma Consulting earlier this year reported that fully 90% of the wireless industry’s net customer additions came from connected cars and internet of things devices.
“In 2014, 61% of the accounts added were phones. Cars accounted for 12% and the IoT 18%. Tablets are at 9%,” the firm wrote, noting that, in 2015 and 2016 the phone category declined while connected cars and the IoT grew significantly. “In 2017, non-phone category again dominated with connected vehicles leading the field for the first time in history. While the ARPUs from such net adds is quite low compared to postpaid net adds, it does reflect the changing dynamics in the industry.”