An unlocked, unsubsidized version of the device would make sense. A $200 subsidy would be a much smaller fraction of this device's price than the iPhone's.  I'd be very reluctant to sign up for another monthly data plan for this device, and I think wifi would be sufficient, especially if you have your smartphone set up to support tethering.  I'd gladly pay more for greater data usage on a single plan that I could share across all my devices, as opposed to paying for a separate unlimited data plan for each device.