3G tablet sales 'very slow,' analyst says

In May, a Verizon Wireless executive said the carrier was considering offering a shared data plan for families where data from more than one smartphone or tablet would be combined.

Verizon hasn't announced anything further on data sharing across families or work groups, although it did stop offering unlimited data plans for new smartphone users on Thursday. It set up three new data pricing tiers, starting at $30 for 2GB per month.

O'Donnell said the carriers would never suggest that a home- or office-based broadband user have a separate DSL line for every desktop computers, which would be far too expensive. At $30 for 2GB per smartphone, a family of four could easily exceed $100 a month for data charges and adding a tablet on cellular would be something they would try to avoid.

"People want the equivalent of a mobile router, with one data plan to use across several devices," O'Donnell said. "It has to be a reasonable price point. Why should the carriers care where I use my bits"

IDC reported on Friday that vendors such as Samsung and Motorola, who sell mobile phones as well as tablets, have tended to focus their tablet distribution through the carriers but only found "moderate" success with tablets.