tbh what this device makes me want most, is it's second generation iteration, as silly as that might sound - for all that they may address from the initial reactions.

i understand the microsd card slot absence, especially since they want to move to the cloud - but without 3g/4g, we can only access this data when we have wifi, correct?

one thing is for certain - i won't be interested in the kindle fire 2, no matter if it has a removable sd card and rear facing camera - i have no interest in the skin the kindle uses over the os

You just teather it to your phone you don't need two phone contracts to pay, my wife uses her Transformer Prime this way and it is fine, people talk about data cost but they will be the same for a tab as a phone and the speed is not a big issue unless you are streaming. Also I think teathering is the way to go you only need one G3/4 device to which all your Wifi devices can connect. Oh and if you got with one of the genuine unlimited packages that allow you to teather then there really is not issue.