Xoom Wifi Locked Until You Purchase 1 Month of Data from Verizon

[panz]

In the land of what the hell!

Verizon locking WiFi on Motorola Xoom until you buy one month of data service? -- Engadget

Not that I was going to spend $800 on this anyways, but I feel this sets a very bad trend for the future. I am very scared that this catches on.

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[razor02097]

Like in the update I would wait to see what big red says before judging. Hopefully someone dropped the ball and doesn't know what they are talking about.

[mountainbikermark]

When I saw that earlier it reminded me of the old red bar ui days of my a930

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[tweebee]

This looks like a similar case with the Galaxy Tab... We were in Best Buy the other day and looked at the Galaxy Tab, just for kicks. The guy told us that they have 2 versions for sale, one for $599 with no contract, and one for $499 with contract. The latter requires that you sign for at least 1 month of data, but then he goes on to say that you can cancel at anytime after that. So I was like, the $499 is cheaper, why wouldn't I buy that with 1 month contract and then cancel it after the 1 month, and it would still be cheaper than the $599. And he said, yup that is the cheapest route to go, but you have to have it activated with the 1 month data before you can use it.

I guess I'm not really understanding the incentive behind all this. Maybe they're hoping that those with the contract would continue using it after the 1 month is up, or they forget to cancel? It is mind-boggling...

[panz]

This looks like a similar case with the Galaxy Tab... We were in Best Buy the other day and looked at the Galaxy Tab, just for kicks. The guy told us that they have 2 versions for sale, one for $599 with no contract, and one for $499 with contract. The latter requires that you sign for at least 1 month of data, but then he goes on to say that you can cancel at anytime after that. So I was like, the $499 is cheaper, why wouldn't I buy that with 1 month contract and then cancel it after the 1 month, and it would still be cheaper than the $599. And he said, yup that is the cheapest route to go, but you have to have it activated with the 1 month data before you can use it.

I guess I'm not really understanding the incentive behind all this. Maybe they're hoping that those with the contract would continue using it after the 1 month is up, or they forget to cancel? It is mind-boggling...

in the case of the Galaxy tab, Verizon subsidizes the thing for $100. I'm just guessing but I'm pretty sure that they see no money from the Galaxy unless someone subscribes to their service. Best Buy is getting all the money. So if someone activates 1 month of service ($30?) and then has to pay the activation fee $35 i believe, they make back $65 of their $100 investment. If they can convince just a few of those people to stay with the service, then they make their money back and then start to profit.

But at least with the Galaxy tab you still have the option to buy without Verizon.

[panz]

Verizon is really starting to make me lose faith in it: Verizon iPhone Shows You Can’t Win: Carriers Hold the Cards | Gadget Lab | Wired.com


Hopefully Verizon will come out with some answers (especially to the last 3 paragraphs). I would like to hear their side of the story and what their criteria will be for determining how much bandwidth is too much, etc.