Android Honeycomb Tablet OS is official. This does not suck! - Page 3

Not only do they force you to pay for one month, they charge you an activation fee to boot

That's how you lose out to the iPad.

 

Apparently it will have 4G / LTE capability 'real soon now', and that will sell some units. But now priced effectively $120 over the 32GB iPad (presumably), it's set for mass-market failure.

I don't think the tablet mass market is really a 3G/4G market.  Anyone know the ratio of wifi only iPads sold versus 3G iPads?  I assume that ratio is very high.  So whether or not the $800 3G Xoom is price to fail or not, the fact is, even a $700 3G Xoom would be hard pressed to compete with a wifi only model at $600.  

Interesting question. Quick google doesn't find a breakdown of wifi vs 3G. I assumed it wouldn't be highly skewed since I plan to buy one or two 3G iPads.

Looking forward to seeing all the tablets this year.

Both TMo and AT&T allow for the same month to month plans available on the iPad.  Verizon, however, charges you a reactivation fee every time you want to re-enable 3G.

Waiting to see how the Verizon iPad 2 will be charged. I bet there's no activation fees.

 

Do we know for sure V actually charges this in practice or is that just based on some fine print or something?

 

In fine print, V pretty much always say they'll charge (re)activation fee (or at least reserve the right to do so) for pretty much everything, including basic cell phone service, but in actual practice, they tend to be very lenient about that (at least for cell phone service near as I can tell).  No idea if that applies to tablets (or other mobile broadband offerings) though.

 

At the end of the day, I gotta think they'd rather have you (re)activate and pay for service now-and-then than get nothing from you at all, if it's clear enough that the (re)activation fee can be a dealbreaker.

 

_Man_

Reviewers found V charged (re) activation fees for the Tab for toggling the 3G service.

There was a cheage for the first use of 3G and a react fee if it was turned off and then back on.

Man, the Verizon reactivation fee, which has been pointed out in almost every SGT review, is in sharp contrast to AT&T and TMo's month by month plans where you can pay for data access at a month at a time without any reactivation fees.  So you can buy a month's worth of data access if, say, you know you're going to be on vacation for a couple of weeks and then go wifi only for the rest of the year.

But are those review commentaries based on actual firsthand experience or just reading some fine prints, talking to V's PR and whatever else similar though?

 

Honestly, V hasn't been doing the tab business long enough for anyone to know how they'd actually handle it in practice in the long run (other than basing it on past history w/ their cell phone business, etc.).

 

I'm sure V *wants* to keep you paying a constant stream of $$$ (or force you to pay for reactivations), but from my experience, etc., I don't think V would stick w/ that if that actually means losing customers and losing in their ultimate bottomline.  They will do whatever they think works, including being lenient about reactivations me thinks -- unless someone proves otherwise...

 

Now, I'm not actually recommending anyone betting that V won't charge the reactivation fee, but I'm just saying there's probably no need to jump to quick conclusions about what V will actually do in the long run or even a few months from now.  They seem to change their marketing strategy and/or pricing plans/policies, etc. pretty often as they find the need, especially when faced w/ actual competition from other carriers.  They are most likely not about to cut off their nose to spite potential customers who will otherwise just spurn their data service altogether...

 

_Man_

Actual experience.

We're drawing conclusions based on what Verizon has been doing with the tab.

I think it will be different with their iPad.

Maybe it will be different with Their first real Android tablet too.

But how will Xoom owners browse the Xoom website to learn about their device?!?

 

If you go to the Xoom website on an iPad, don't you get a message about, 'if you owned a device that didn't suck, you could learn about the Xoom.' What will it say when viewed on a Xoom?

Very surprising they couldn't get Flash working on Honeycomb before shipping their flagship device.  Looks like Motorola and Verizon had ants in their pants trying to be the first one out.

There's a cynical view, in some commentators, that this is a purposeful ploy to ship review units without Flash so it won't harm battery life.

 

I don't share that. I think Hanson's perspective is far more likely. (or, from the other side, Adobe is behind schedule)

3G Xoom $600 with 2 year contract:

 

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/22/verizon-announces-xoom-pricing-600-on-contract-20-per-month/

 

Yes, the data is limited to 1GB, but $1080 over 2 years to have always on data access in a pinch is actually a pretty good deal compared to other data plans.

 

I wonder if Verizon didn't offer any contract plans for the SGT knowing that the Xoom was coming and considered the SGT a stopgap.

Any further word on activation fees and such?

 

It's nearly the same cost as the 32GB iPad with the $15/mo plan for 24 months. You get more data with the Xoom. You're not locked in for 24 months with the iPad.

 

I'll prefer a contract-free device with 3G. I expect to want 3G on occasion, but not enough for a contract to be worthwhile.

The cost for always on access is more of a convenience than a necessity, but if you're in the middle of bufu nowhere and want to use Google Maps on your tablet, it's pretty nice to have. 

You underestimate my frugality :) (I'm disinclined to spend another $15 / mo on another data device.) But practically, for my specific uses, my iPad will be used almost solely at home. The occaisional business trip or vacation might need 3G for me, but I don't see it as that big a deal and even then there's free wifi almost everywhere on such trips. My wife, however, will need 3G for in the car on vacations. Depending on how that goes, it's not hard to imagine paying for 3G six of every 12 months for her device.

 

But I am thinking of getting a Verizon iPad, as hedge against our AT&T iPhones. :)

Not too sure though about using the Xoom for Google Maps turn-by-turn driving Nav (w/ that 10" form factor).  And if you don't need it for actual realtime/on-the-fly driving nav, that new version of Google Maps/Nav should probably do enough smart caching to make WiFi-only workable, no?

 

Even w/ the few-yo Google Maps that I had installed on my (now lost) 2G iPod Touch, it would cache enough map data for walking from one Starbucks to a few others (in a major city) in most cases.   And now, they're touting the caching in this latest version that comes w/ the Xoom/Honeycomb.

 

But yeah, if you actually intend on using it for regular turn-by-turn driving nav (in place of a more traditional solution), then you'll probably need the data service on a regular basis even if most/all(?) of the map data, especially for your actual route, can be cached when you have WiFi access.  But if you're gonna do that, then paying for data service is not bad at all.

 

I'm just not sure the 10" form factor is really suitable for turn-by-turn nav -- even walking nav w/ that form factor might be cumbersome (as you've noted in the past when discussing the 7" SGT).
 

  That last bit is probably a good idea, especially if you can still get the MiFi bundle for no extra cost w/ iPad 2, which seems doubtful.  Well, I'm assuming V doesn't actually somehow lock the MiFi device to the iPad they sell you in bundle -- so you can actually use the MiFi for other WiFi devices too...

 

_Man_

I'm assuming (predicting?) there will be a CDMA iPad 2 that works identically to the current 3G iPad. No mifi. No contract. A la carte data, but on Big Red's network. If not, I'll be with AT&T 100%.

 

As for the Xoom: it's out this Thursday? Think BestBuy will have demo units on the floor? Or will they treat it with the same care and concern they give their flagship phones: an inoperable  plastic dummy, zip-tied to a kiosk.

Is the Xoom really coming out this week?  Guess the launch date hadn't really sunk in for me yet.

 

I'll need to go check it out at the V store that's located in the same shopping center as the nearest (new) BB.  So Costco's carrying it asap too?  Maybe that's the better way to go if for no other reason than a potentially better return policy, especially if you wanna try the WiFi-only option.

 

_Man_

Engadget has a nice review.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/23/motorola-xoom-review/

 

Lots to like. Some UI oddities. Suffers a lack of native software. No detail on how a la carte 3G works with Verizon on the Xoom. But generally, getting that UI guy from Palm is now paying off and coupled with Motorola's competent hardware, it's a nice device.

 

 

But on behalf of all iPod and iPhone owners, I wish to apologize to you Android users who will now be suffering with a Coverflow-like experience in your music player. ;)

I'm probably gonna see about checking it out at a local V store in the coming week or two.

 

BTW, Costco still offers a 90-day no-questions-asked return policy on this kind of item near as I can tell, so that would likely indeed be the best way to go, if anyone wants to give one a good trial run before committing to the purchase, assuming of course that you have Costco membership (or was already considering one)...

 

One thing.  I wonder how the contract thing is handled though, if you decide to return it after 30 days, since V itself usually only allows 30 days for returns.  Probably not an issue for the WiFi-only version or if you simply go w/out contract.

 

_Man_

I was wondering how the Xoom would view its own website. Now I know :)

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26574892@N07/5475257624/lightbox/

Hanson was right: Moto was desperate to ship the Xoom before it was ready.

* Flash not ready
* microsd not functional until a pending firmware update
* 4G requires requesting the upgrade and shipping it back to Moto for week
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/02/23/official-details-of-the-4g-lte-upgrade-process-for-the-motorola-xoom/

Both Moss and Engadget go into detail about the price disadvantage between a $499 wifi only iPad and the $799 off-contract Xoom seemingly unaware of the $599 wifi only Xoom and the $599 3G Xoom with contract.  I know a lot of these reviews are written well before the street date and published just as they hit the stores, but you would think they would quickly revise the article in light of the new pricing that came out just before Xoom dropped.