No wifi tether? Really?

[the_fdb]

I was pretty pumped to see that the incredible was being offered with legitimate tethering. I recently had the opportunity to use the Verizon palm pre plus mobile hotspot feature and walked away VERY impressed. It is confusing to me, however, that a phone that with significantly lower hardware specs and a much less popular OS (than android) is being offered from the same provider with this feature and their cutting edge flagship smartphone is not.

USB tethering is a step in the right direction but we are talking apples and oranges here between mobile hotspot and wired tethering. I'm wondering if this is something that is planned for a future release in the app store or if it is possible for a third party to make an app that would allow wifi tethering on locked phones utilizing the legitimate vzw tethering package.

What a disappointment. Other than this gripe, I must say that I am thrilled with my incredible anyway.

 

[PJnc284]

It's because palm was in the tank and verizon was throwing in everything they could think of to try to move the phones. I mean the price dropped from $199 to $49 in just a couple months and they're throwing in the free wifi hotspot which was previously $40/month. And now Palm has just been bought out by HP.

 

[the_fdb]

It's because palm was in the tank and verizon was throwing in everything they could think of to try to move the phones. I mean the price dropped from $199 to $49 in just a couple months and they're throwing in the free wifi hotspot which was previously $40/month. And now Palm has just been bought out by HP.

I understand the palm story but why would Verizon care about moving one phone over another when their profit margins on the phones/data packages are roughly the same? I think it was more of a Palm thing like "Hey Verizon, check out this cool new hotspot application we came out with... wanna charge people for it?" I think the real reason is a lack of development resources at VZW. If i'm not mistaken, they outsourced their "My Verizon" app, why not outsource an android app for wifi tether?

 

[VKitty]

It's because palm was in the tank and verizon was throwing in everything they could think of to try to move the phones.

I dont think thats the reason.

cutting edge flagship smartphone

I think this is more the reason. Think about it, if you have a flagship smartphone why would you GIVE away something on that phone? As a flagship smartphone people are going to buy it regardless, why not get as much money as you can from the early adopters.