How Motorola Plans to Ruin the Xoom Tablet

So, it looks like we do finally have a price and launch date for the upcoming Motorola Xoom tablet, which they advertised during the Super Bowl last night.

The evidence for a Motorola Xoom launch on February 24th just became that bit more compelling, courtesy of this here Best Buy ad. It promises Moto’s Android tablet will be in stores a couple of weeks from now, decorated with a daunting $799.99 sticker.

About all I have to say about that is… “Good luck with that.”

Wow. Really?

It gets worse. On top of that, it appears that you will not be able to buy one without activating it on Verizon’s network. That means that if you want one of these things, but you don’t want a monthly service plan for it, you’re basically out of luck. According to the reports out of Best Buy, you cannot buy a Xoom tablet at all without also signing up for a Verizon data plan for the tablet. They just won’t let you do it. Of course, the $800 price is contract-free, so you could sign up and then cancel the plan when you get home, but that doesn’t mean that Verizon isn’t going to charge you an activation fee to turn the 3G data service on, and apparently you can’t even buy one without activating a service plan. So, no matter what, you’re going to be on the hook for at least a Verizon Activation Fee and probably one month of service on top of that $800 you paid.

We’re hearing from some Best Buy Mobile employees that these simply won’t be able to be sold without being first activated on Verizon’s network, so even though you could theoretically cancel the same day, you’ll still likely get hit with a one-time activation fee (and possibly one month of data). Then again, there appears to be typos on the flyer, so you may want to wait for Verizon’s official word before getting up in arms.

And this is at Best Buy, not at the Verizon Store. Of course, if Best Buy is forcing you to turn on a Verizon Data Plan before letting you walk out the door with a Xoom, then the Verizon store will absolutely be locking you into a plan at their stores!

And that certainly doesn’t bode well for using a 3G Xoom with an iPad-style “turn the data on only when you need it” type use-case! If they’re going to charge you an Activation Fee, that pretty much rules out turning the service on and off for a week or so at a time when you need it (when traveling or whatnot).

I hoped not, but I figured it was coming. None of the cell phone handset makers seem to get it. They want to sell tablets, not as a computing platform, but as a vehicle for getting people to sign up for a second (and third and fourth) data plan from their cellphone carriers.

Yeah… Good luck with that.