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4G LTE Motorola Xoom Upgrade

Is this so hard that Motorola insist we send it to them? I don't understand why they can't just send out the items needed to Verizon and have them do it. I saw a torndown of the Xoom online and the guy said it wasn't that hard that even Verizon's tech should be able to do it at their stores.

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Comments

unknown

It may not be a matter of how hard it is. It's probably just how Motorola and Verizon negotiated to get it done.

leecason

Have you ever had your data transferred from one smart phone to another at the Verizon Wireless store? Recall that special piece of hardware with special software that they connect the source and destination phones to, in order for this procedure to be performed? Well I suspect that some similar special hardware/software rigs will be used to do the Xoom upgrade. And if so, then the next question is, how many of these special, single-purpose, single-use devices would you want to have to build? Enough to support a central upgrade depot, or enough to ship to hundreds (thousands?) of Verizon Wireless outlets?

If it were possible to make available for the tech savvy DIYer, then it would probably be made available if it was cost effective to do so. But developing an alternative process and software for the DIYers costs money, and the money saved at the central depot likely didn't cover the estimated cost to develop the DIY process/software--if it can even be done without special hardware. Time to market is another big factor, since the tablet race of 2011 is highly competitive. It it wasn't then VZW/Motorola could have simply waited until the 4G LTE firmware update was finished before releasing the Xoom. But they had to beat the iPad 2 and 10" Samsung Galaxy Tab to market. I think it was a smart marketing decision and I'm glad to be using my Xoom now rather than waiting for a 4G Xoom later.

Anyway, my 2-cents worth of speculation on the subject. I'm mostly on WiFi so I probably won't be an early adopter, even though I have a 4G tower visible from my back yard and one on campus at work.

Cheers,

Lee

moblgeek

I am not going to do it, if that is how it works....are you kidding me???? I still think we at some point will be able to take it into a store. Sounds like we return to factory original settings that way...in the 4 days that I have had the device I have added a lot of apps and stuff...who needs 4G its going to be years before it is the dominant mode of transfer and I'll just get by on 3G and WiFi.

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