According to sources the Motorola Xoom will be available on February 24th for a price tag of $799. The Xoom is attempting to be the first Android tablet that will be able to challenge the reign of the Apple iPad.
The tablet has some power to go along with that price. Fitted with a Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor and its 10.1 screen this is by far one of the best Android built tablets. The tablet will also be able to use multiple 3D applications including the Google Maps 5.0 which has a cool feature of being able to see buildings rise while you are tilting your Xoom.
The Xoom will also have a 2-megapixel camera for video chat which can be done either by Wifi or the 3G/4G LTE network on the front of the tablet. On the back of the tablet is a 5-megapixal camera which has the ability to record 720p HD video.
So the Xoom looks like it could rival the Apple iPad and if you are a Verizon user this is a nice choice to have. Now we will just have to wait to see what the iPad 2 will add to combat this new tablet. The Android/Apple rivalry is really starting to flourish.
If you have kept up to date with our blogs you have seen that lately we have posted about the iPhone 4 Verizon launch. The reason we do this is because this is a historical moment in wireless history. The day the iPhone gave up its exclusivity. Now granted with some work around you could unlock your iPhone and use it on TMobile network but you still could not use it on Verizon. This being the first time you can legitimately use an iPhone on another network is momentous. But not so fast, I am going to pass.
I am a Verizon wireless customer and I am NOT making the switch to an iPhone 4. I would like to share three reasons with you on why I am not getting the iPhone 4 so you can make an informed decision if you haven’t done so already. First is that I already have a smartphone, a Droid X. Now if you read one of our earlier blogs you would have seen our survey says article in which a good amount of Droid users said they would make the switch. I have valid reasons to hold out. The second reason is the iPhone 5. I have a friend who has gone through every generation of iPhone there is and like him I would have done the same if I went to AT&T. So if I bought the iPhone 4 it would be just a place holder until the iPhone 5 which could be out as soon as late 2011. So why buy the iPhone 4 now just to replace in possible less than a year’s time. Now currently there is no date for the 5 but it will surely be no later than 2012 and since I have a nice smartphone, I can wait. Reason three LTE! Yes the iPhone 4 is not on the new LTE network Verizon has been pushing but the speculation is that the iPhone 5 will be on the LTE network which is suppose to give 4G speeds instead of 3G speeds.
So needless to say I am going against the grain on the Verizon iPhone 4. There is still plenty of reasons to get it, like if you don’t have a smart phone yet and you have waited all this time to get one and you just so happened to hold out for the iPhone 4, or because it’s an iPhone and you have to have it. Either way this is one of the most historic moments in wireless history and if you are one of those lucky people who got a preorder and will get it on February 10th good job! We will be keeping track of the launch and keep you up to date on how Verizon handles the new influx of customers as many AT&T customers will be making the switch. So will Verizon be able to handle this or will they fall on the sword as AT&T did and have a high number of dropped calls due to the extreme amount of data usage iPhone users bring? Only time will tell!
The online sample company uSamp conducted a “highly profiled online panel” of over 700 smartphone users asking them if they would make the switch the Verizon iPhone 4 in late January. The results were release on Thursday. The survey noted that 54% of customers are either very likely (25%) or somewhat likely (29%) to buy an iPhone 4 when it arrives to the Verizon network next week.
This survey signals very bad news for RIM (Research in Motion). RIM is the creators of Blackberry and many of their users showed a higher interest in changing to the iPhone 4. With an astounding 66% probability to change over, compared to the Andriod which only had a 44% chance. With Android, Blackberry was already starting to take a dip and now that the iPhone is coming to Verizon we are now looking Blackberry taking a backseat to the iPhone and the Android.
Another thing to take away from the survey was that 26% of the AT&T customer base have plans to purchase a Verizon iPhone on the day of launch. For the people who are switching from AT&T to Verizon the biggest culprit was the amount of dropped call at 48%.
The reviews on the iPhone 4 for Verizon shows significantly less calls than the AT&T Phones.
uSamps reports a 3.6% margin of error for their results.
We all know that magical slogan from Verizon Wireless: “Can you hear me now?” Well Verizon has decide to take that slogan to a who new level with the introduction of the iPhone 4. They are taking shots at AT&T’s network in a new commercial for the iPhone 4. Most people are well aware that the AT&T iPhone 4 has a had troubles with dropped calls and well Verizon Wireless is set to dramatically reduce that problem current AT&T iPhone 4 customers have.
The breakdown of the commercial is simple. It starts with the camera panning over the iPhone with conquering type music playing in the background with a voice over saying this:
?It?s beautiful.?
?It?s intelligent.?
?Ingenious.?
Then the music speeds up.
?But does your network, work??
A call comes in. And the person answering the call is revealed. It?s the Verizon guy!
It took Verizon only two hours of having the iPhone 4 available for pre-order to break its all-time record for first day sales of a single device. They did this with only offering preorders to the customers of Verizon and offering to them in early morning. Which was between 3AM and 5AM yesterday morning, more customers ordered up the iPhone 4 than Verizon has been able to get into its stores on any full product launch day. There isn?t any actual number of devices ordered by Verizon, but from the server issues it was having directly after having the handset available and the consequent closing of advance pre-orders, we’ll go ahead and assume we are looking at an extreme amount of orders.
Below is Verizon Wireless press release:
VERIZON WIRELESS HAS RECORD SALES ON FIRST DAY OF iPHONE 4
Available to General Public on Feb.10
BASKING RIDGE, N.J. ? At 8:10 p.m. EST yesterday, Verizon Wireless ceased online orders of iPhone 4 to existing customers and ended the most successful first day sales in the history of the company.
“This was an exciting day,” said Dan Mead, president and chief executive officer for Verizon Wireless. “In just our first two hours, we had already sold more phones than any first day launch in our history. And, when you consider these initial orders were placed between the hours of 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., it is an incredible success story. It is gratifying to know that our customers responded so enthusiastically to this exclusive offer — designed to reward them for their loyalty.
“I am proud of our employees who worked tirelessly to strengthen and scale our systems, enabling unprecedented customer orders through our website. Overall, it was a very good day,” he added.
Mead also said customers will have another opportunity at being among the nation’s first to own an iPhone 4 on the Verizon Wireless network.
“Yesterday’s launch set the pace for next week when we open up sales to everyone across America.”
The general market launch of the iPhone 4 on the Verizon Wireless network will occur on February 10. The company will open its more than 2000 Verizon Wireless Stores at 7 a.m. It will also be available at all Apple store locations, Best Buy, select Wal-Mart stores, and on-line at verizonwireless.com and apple.com.
According to a PDF memo available on Verizon Wireless? website (for now), they will begin to throttle the data-throughput speeds of customers that consume an ?extraordinary amount of data? and ?seamlessly? optimize content for smartphones which is estimated at 5% of customers at the moment and it is suppose to be starting today.
According to VZW, the move will ?provide the best experience to our more than 94 million customers.?
This moves comes very close to the launch of the iPhone. Verizon is obviously getting prepared for the flood of iPhone sales and since they are going to be giving unlimited data plans with this phone we can only imagine that the 5% figure they gave us will go up exponentially once there are more users on Verizon with the iPhone. Below are a few excerpts from the memo on Verizon wirelesses web site:
“Verizon Wireless strives to provide customers the best experience when using our network, a shared resource among tens of millions of customers. To help achieve this, if you use an extraordinary amount of data and fall within the top 5% of Verizon Wireless data users we may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically for the remainder of your then current and immediately following billing cycle to ensure high quality network performance for other users at locations and times of peak demand. Our proactive management of the Verizon Wireless network is designed to ensure that the remaining 95% of data customers aren?t negatively affected by the inordinate data consumption of just a few users.”
“We are implementing optimization and transcoding technologies in our network to transmit data files in a more efficient manner to allow available network capacity to benefit the greatest number of users. These techniques include caching less data, using less capacity, and sizing the video more appropriately for the device. The optimization process is agnostic to the content itself and to the website that provides it. While we invest much effort to avoid changing text, image, and video files in the compression process and while any change to the file is likely to be indiscernible, the optimization process may minimally impact the appearance of the file as displayed on your device. For a further, more detailed explanation of these techniques, please visit www.verizonwireless.com/vzwoptimization.”
