So were were hanging out at Costco today and what do we find? A stack of Motorola XOOM Android tablets sitting around unassumingly — or at least, their cardboard placeholder counterparts. Did they have prices already? Of course they did! For a brand new Motorola XOOM tablet on a 2-year contract on Verizon in the $50-$80 range per month, you can get the otherwise $789.99 tablet for only $589.99. That’s the cheapest.

If you want to grab the tablet with a 2-year agreement in the $20-$35 a month range, you’re looking at $639.99 total. Then of course if you’d like the no contract model, you’re going to be paying the original $789.99. Will they be running out of units anytime soon? Doesn’t look like it. Per the post we’ve got up from just a few hours ago with a photo from Sam’s Club, you’ll be looking at a $539 price for the unit – but there we’ve got no details on the cost per month from the carrier. Is it too much to hope for a completely non-contract sub-$600 XOOM?

On the other hand, are we asking the wrong question? We’ve been considering the fact that trends have been pointing toward a completely price-independent system where a device can cost $600 out of the gate and be essentially free (on contract) only a few months later. Will the same be true of the XOOM? We’re thinking that in order to compete with the other Android tablets, all Motorola really had to do was what they’ve already done, declare that Google chose them to release the optimized Honeycomb product/OS combination. What about the iPad? More on that in another article.

23 COMMENTS

  1. The Costco I go to was doing a crap job showing the Xoom–they had the setting disabled. I picked it up and within a minute people were asking me about it. Gave them the facts and they all wanted one–easy item to sell lol.

    Now if Costco would get the WiFi version. . . I bet they will match or bet Sam’s Club $539 price.

    • they really should have someone standing around in the tech area showing people whats going on with devices – i get the feeling that a lot of the time people dont even approach items because they fear looking like a newb

  2. The Costco I go to was doing a crap job showing the Xoom–they had the setting disabled. I picked it up and within a minute people were asking me about it. Gave them the facts and they all wanted one–easy item to sell lol.

    Now if Costco would get the WiFi version. . . I bet they will match or bet Sam’s Club $539 price.

  4. Wake me up when there’s a wi-fi-only model. I had actually gone into costco on launch day and reluctantly decided to spend the $789 just to get one, even though I didn’t want any Verizion service. The girl working at the Xoom table chased me to the line and physically grabbed the cardboard upc code thingy out of my hand telling me I had to get a Verizon contract (which I already knew was a false claim). A loud argument ensued, ending in me storming out of the Costco for Best Buy, which had none.

    How backwards to release the Verizion version first which requires a later send-in-and-upgrade to LTE. Most people want the wi-fi model which should have been released first.

  5. People don’t like contracts, and they sure don’t like paying $800 for a tablet. Hence the reason the $699 and $829 iPads don’t sell as much as the 16 or 32GB models.

    Xoom = Doom = Right along with the Zune!!!

  6. The tablets are too high priced. Android 3.0 isn’t official and getting ripped off by a 3g carrier just sucks in general. Another problem is Motorola’s reputation hasn’t gone undamaged over the years with products that are just to HIGH PRICED for what they are and the Xoom is no exception. Android tablets will succeed in bringing down Apple market share to a smaller percentage, but it won’t be fully with help from Motorola. It will be by lower cost products such as Archos, and if and when other makers such as Sony and Samsung decide to not price gouge the market by overshooting on price. Let this be a warning to HP as well. Laptops are STILL a viable alternative in the $500-$800 price range and you get ALOT more useability from a portable device than a tablet. You could also buy a battery extender so you can get the 10+ hours a tablet gets as well for about the same price range as an upper end tablet.

  7. Greed is going to slow initial penetration of Android tablets. Samsung and Motorola are both in the same bucket. Wait for 2H for Tegra 2 tablets to be cheap as the commodity products they are supposed to be – $250-350

  8. If you go to verizonwireless.com you can get a better deal. $599 for the unit with a 2 year plan for $20 a month. beats Costco for sure. Why pay more at Costco. i guess if you have an executive membership or a cash back amex you could get a little more off.

    I backed off of buying from Costco also because the clowns showing the Xoom treated me like garbage after i mentioned the better deal straight from Verizon.

  9. I got an email yesterday that said Costco will be shipping the Xoom on 4/1 for $589. I looked carefully at the fine print and never saw any mention of a contract deal – which they already have now at the Verizon kiosks, so I have to assume that this is the wi-fi verson.

    I just bought the Xoom for my wife at Verizon and was not happy about the 2 year contract. They say that you can opt out of the $20 per month 1 gig data plan after 6 months, but you would still have to maintain a contract plan (like a phone) for another 18 months – 6x$20 + 18x$10 (for our family plan)=$300 more than the wifi version from Costco.

    Verizon = 14 day return policy, $70 restocking fee, 1 year manufacturer warranty, 2 year commitment.

    Costco = 90 day return policy, $0 restocking fee, 2 years manufacturer warranty, 0 year commitment on Wifi version.

    Verizon said that they would not be selling the wifi version.

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