Xoom to Hit Stores Thursday with $600 Verizon Contract
Things have been looking grim for the Motorola Xoom simply because of the $800 price tag. Fortunately, Verizon is offering a subsidized version for $600, with a two-year contract.
The $800 price tag is for an unsubsidized Xoom that still required the owner to register with Verizon for at least one month of service . The Verizon-subsidized version requires a full contract.
Verizon also confirmed the Motorola Xoom will launch on Thursday (Feb. 24) at most Verizon stores and online.
Unfortunately, the data plan doesn't continue the trend of cheaper prices. Verizon offers 1GB of 3G data per month for $20, which is remarkably low for a connected device. By comparison, Verizon offers a $30 unlimited plan for phones and AT&T charges $25 for 2GB of data. All but the most frugal data users will likely have problems staying within a 1GB data cap, especially if they want to stream music or video through the Xoom.
As promised, Verizon said Xoom will also be upgradeable to the 4G LTE data network for no additional charge. That feature will become available in the second quarter of 2011.
