iPad coming to Verizon

Apple and Verizon announced yesterday that beginning on Thursday October 28, the iPad will be available for purchase at Verizon Wireless retail stores nationwide. What does this mean? Well… not as much as you’d think.

The success of the iPad is no secret. Apple sold over a million iPads a month in the first 3 months of its existence, and it is projected to have sold 12 million units by the end of 2010, 28 million by the end of 2011. There are currently 2 models of the iPad, each with different levels of storage capacity. The Wi-Fi model and a model that will operate on Wi-Fi or 3g mobile data network (With data plan, sold separately). Each model comes with 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB.

Popular logic would lead one to believe that since these iPads are now being offered by Verizon, who is a phone company with a 3g network that they would connect to their 3g network. This would be great, considering everyone’s knock on AT&T is the miniscule coverage area by their GSM 3G network. Well, the iPad’s that Verizon will be selling will connect to that 3g network…. Kind of.

Only the Wi-Fi version of the iPad will be available from Verizon, but they will be selling them bundled with their 3g mobile hotspot, which (for $20 a month for 1GB of data, No contracts) you can connect to via Wi-Fi. So in order to use your new Verizon iPad outside of the office, or your home, you will need to lug around Verizon’s mobile hotspot, which looks like a portable external hard drive.

So as it seems, this news isn’t as good as it looks. Apple also announced that on the same day, iPads will also be offered at AT&T stores nationwide. The AT&T iPads will be the models with Wi-Fi and 3G built-in. AT&T’s data package will be $25 for 2GB per month. So AT&T has a significantly better service deal, without having to drag around a mobile hotspot, however, you’re crippled by the well-documented lack of 3G coverage with AT&T’s network. What is a potential iPad user to do? To offer my opinion, if you live in an area with AT&T’s 3G coverage, and don’t travel much into rural areas, then AT&T is definitely the way to go. From a person who has been on all 3 major 3g networks, AT&T has the fastest data speed. Also, the plan is cheaper, so that helps.

So really, the best thing to come out of this news is that there is definitely a relationship between Verizon and Apple, which bodes well to those whose hopes are on a Verizon iPhone. If you are interested in buying an iPad from Verizon, their price structure with the included mobile hotspot is as follows. $629.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 16GB + MiFi, $729.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 32GB + MiFi and $829.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 64GB + MiFi.

Props to the iPhone repair techs at iFixyouri clearing up some details on this.

1 year ago

Quitness….

I kinda figured LeBron was a piece of shit from back when he got into hot water over driving a brand new Hummer in high school, despite the fact that he had no dad, and lived in a one room apartment with his crack-addicted mother. But, I gave him the benefit of the doubt when the Cavs drafted him.

Now he proves that he is nothing more than just another loser, who doesn’t want to work to be great, and will shit all over the people who support him just to have an easy shot at the prize.
We should have known this was his mentality, just from little things like his favorite sports teams. I mean, come on… we all made fun of the bandwagon kids who were Yankees and Cowboys fans growing up. It’s easy to like those teams, because they are always good.

I guess my point is, you don’t become great by always taking the path of least resistance… At some point, you need to prove that you can overcome adversity, at least the same adversity everyone else faces. It’s kind of like using cheat codes to beat video games… Yeah, you beat the game, but how proud of yourself can you really be? You couldn’t beat the game the way it was supposed to be played.

That’s why LeBron James will never be “The Greatest”. If anyone ever had a chance to be the next Michael Jordan, it was LeBron, and that is what brought me back to being an NBA fan… the prospect of another “greatest of all time” player… but now he is just another trash star who will likely win a trash championship. For that, I am done with the NBA for good.

Congrats on giving up the chance to be the greatest.
I hope your mom gets arrested every weekend.