[Galaxy Note 10.1 General] BarryH_GEG:
Samsung's on record saying half the original G-Tab 10.1's were sold as 3/4G and a lot of those were via wireless carriers. None of the U.S. carriers have launched the Note yet but it has been through the FCC for VZW and AT&T. The LTE version of the Note was also delayed as Samsung wanted to provide simultaneous voice/data. It's only been launched in a handful of markets. So at the end of the day, when the LTE versions are fully launched, the same 50/50 split that the original G-Tab had seems reasonable for the Note.

Calling it a "gimmick" is fine; as it applies to you personally. I wouldn't own a tablet that wasn't 3/4G and think the idea of it not being always connected kind of defeats the purpose. But that's just my opinion.

Here are some benefits:

If a Wi-Fi tablet's been off line, the first time it's re-connected it takes several minutes for all the syncs (I have about a dozen) to catch up making it slow or difficult to use until that happens. With a 3G tablet it's always on, synced, and ready to go as soon as you start to use it. I never power my tablet off as wireless standby uses very little battery so I can just pull it out of my briefcase, hit the power button, and I'm instantly connected with all my data up to date.

Tethering is a pain in the ass. 1) Take out phone, 2) turn on Wi-Fi sharing, 3) connect the tablet, 4) disconnect the tablet, 5) turn off Wi-Fi sharing on the phone. Forget the latter and you're phone's battery is toast. It's toast anyway because Wi-Fi sharing consumes a ton of battery. Why should the device with the smallest battery being powering the one with the largest?

Tablets use a lot of data because they tend to be used more heavily for consumption. Depending on your data plan it's not much more to get the tablet its own plan doubling your available amount of data. I typically use about 5GB a month on my phone and on my tablet. Two data plans cost me less than a single 10GB data plan would.

I do a lot of video calling over 3/4G. The size of the display on the Note makes it a much better choice than my phone. I also make all my long conference calls using my Note because it can go 10 times as long as my phone because of the size of its battery. Between the Note and my phone I'll never worry about battery life preventing me from making or receiving calls.

I have my phone and Note set up identically so I can pick the one that's most appropriate for what I want to do. My e-mail, calendar, and contacts are exactly the same on both. So if I'm at an airport and need to fire off a short MMS I'll use the phone; same thing for short e-mails or replies. For long e-mails, reviewing documents (that I receive online), checking people's schedules I'll always use the Note. If I'm at a gate waiting for a flight I'll pull the Note out to read the news, surf the web, and start a movie listening over A2DP. If boarding's called I just pop it back in my briefcase.

The freedom of always being connected and not having to go through the hassle of finding Wi-Fi, figuring out how to connect to it, possibly being charged for it, and potentially dealing with an unpredictable or marginal connection is a joy and, to me, worth the extra cost of both buying a 3/4G tablet and adding it to my plan. I also buy the Note 800MB of data for $120 when I'm traveling which is dirt cheap and includes 1GB of Wi-Fi roaming on international providers. Wi-Fi access abroad in hotels can be as high as $40 USD a day. So the extra I paid for a 3G Note and its plan has already been paid back five times over.

A lot of the things I mentioned are useless for people that don't travel, don't use their devices for business, and are primarily consumption users. But I have a lot of friends who use their tablets like I've described so I'm not the only one out there and from sales of the OG G-Tab we’re half the market.