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Re-activateVerizon yesterday disclosed to the Wall Street Journal that it's working on a tablet computer with Google, creating the promise of the most viable competitor yet to Apple's iPad.
The project puts together two platforms that are highly competitive with those used on Apple's tablet computer. The upcoming device will use Google's Android mobile operating system, according to Bloomberg. That platform gets high marks from our phone-testing experts and recently vaulted to second place for use among mobile OSs, after the Apple iPhone OS, which is used in the iPad—as well, of course, as in Apple's smart phones.
And where AT&T, the carrier to which the iPad is connected, has a middling rank in our Ratings of wireless carriers, available to consumers, Verizon has scored very well. In particular, AT&T has by its own admission sometimes struggled to accommodate the data demands of iPhone and iPad users, some of whom consume huge amounts of data every month, as we reported in exclusive findings.
The Verizon-Google Android partnership has already produced several fine smart phones, including the Motorola Droid, which gets high marks in our smart phone Ratings, available to subscribers.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Lowell McAdam, chief executive of Verizon Wireless, disclosed few details about the device, which he said is expected to be ready to demonstrate early next year—which likely means at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
The new device will run on Verizon's new high-speed LTE network, which is expected to be in place in 25 to 30 markets by later this year. However, AT&T's struggle with iPhone (and now, perhaps, iPad, too) data hogs appears to be shaping Verizon's pricing plans for their new network. MacAdam told the WSJ that he expected unlimited plans "...to fall away" in favor of those that offer a "bucket of megabytes."
—Paul Reynolds
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