Xoom 4G LTE upgrade in 90 days; Verizon confirms no service plan changes when updated

Verizon's Motorola Xoom LTE upgrade information page has just gone live (as of just a few minutes ago, in fact, on Feb. 24, its launch day). It has some interesting information about the upgrade process for the currently wi-fi and 3G only device, including the fact that once upgraded, your data plan will not change.

There was concern that the change to 4G would mean that users would see a similar upgrade to the pricing on their data plan. Verizon's website says:

you will not have to change your plan when the 4G LTE upgrade is complete.

The bad news, however, is that end users will be without their Xooms for about six business days. The upgrade will be free, and shipping will be free.

Although Verizon didn't detail the date of the upgrade on their public website, Droid-Life has a leaked internal document which states that the timing should be 90 days after launch. That "should" be in late May, therefore.

The Motorola Xoom, the world's first Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) tablet, went on sale on Feb. 24. Honeycomb is the first tablet-optimized version of Android. Verizon is selling the device for $800 with no contract and $600 on a two-year contract.

Verizon has been criticized for requiring users to buy at least one month of data. However, Verizon reached out to us to tell us that the requirement is no longer that. Still, when attempting to "buy" a Xoom we still see it.

On the other hand, why would anyone buy this device and not attach 3G to it? After all, a $600 wi-fi only version is coming, according to Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha.

In addition, people have criticized the device for its price, basing it on comparisons with the lowest-cost iPad. In addition to the fact that the Xoom far outclasses the (admitted, first-gen) iPad, the correct comparison would be against the $729 3G iPad, not the $499 wi-fi only model.

It is a decided negative that the Xoom has very few tablet-optimized apps for it, at launch. That's a result of Google only releasing the Honeycomb SDK to all just this week, and will likely be remedied as quickly as developers can code.