Buy a Playbook.... (ducks)

Your best bet would be to call carrier stores where you want to buy it from. The 3G Xoom is another good option, and there's been plenty of WiMax HTC tables floating around for cheap as well.

duplicate

Useless for the clueless maybe. It was an extreme example so that we could focus on why, at times, it is a good idea to offer a differing opinion, and not to focus on what that specific decision was about.

Why? Because a free exchange of ideas is a valuable thing, unless you are too insecure in your chosen position to be unable to deal with differing facts. In your example I would definitely suggest other viable alternatives if I felt they would be helpful, wouldn't you? Really?

Wow, what a narrow minded view of the world you have. The OP was opening a discussion, and discussions can go in many directions. You may not have heard, but on the internet people often freely offer their opinions when someone opens a new topic for discussion.

Yet maybe they should have, and since they haven't made a purchase yet some of us were offering a different opinion to open up more options for him to look at. How terrible.

Compelled? Stupid? Those are your words, not mine. I offered my opinion, and like yours it is worth whatever value someone else cares to append to it. Don't like my opinion, offer a differing one. But no need to attack the poster.

LOL

I own an iPhone 4, a Motorola Atrix 2 4G (Droid) and use an HP laptop. I am not an Apple fanboi, though I do like some of their products, I do not operate in a closed environment. I use each of them for different reasons, and my personal reasons are the best reason for making a purchase decision, a point I have mentioned to others in other threads when talking about their decision to purchase a product (often a non-Apple product). Some of us are more interested in the discussion and learning something new than in defending a specific company.

What I dislike is some, like yourself, who can't handle open and honest communication without getting defensive.

You may be stuck in grade school, that is fine. You would probably fit right in with the primary Anti-Apple poster in that other thread. The nice thing about the internet is you are free to reject the opinions of others with whom you disagree.

Now, back to the discussion at hand.

Cool story/quote-sniping, bro.

Actually have anything to contribute to a user who's already used an Apple product and has decided that he wants to use an Android tablet without a contract?

I love how easy it is to use the "add to ignore list" feature on Flyertalk. It appears there was all sorts of sniping back and forth between users I didn't even have to read :)

You definitely can buy a tablet unsubsidized from any of the majors. It might be a consideration that since you already have AT&T that you might want to stick with a GSM/LTE tablet that supports their network (meaning, buy it from them) just in case you ever wanted to add it to your plan or swap sims over temporarily.

Tim,

I researched a couple for work - liked the graphic capability of the Xoom, but wound up getting an Acer Iconia 501 because it has a full sized USB port which we needed. Picked it up from CDW. The 501 is either AT&T or Verizon - I have the AT&T one, use it wireless only here in the US, but it does pop up and ask me to either add it to my AT&T contract for I think $15 a month, or to set up a (US, or International) "contract" of it's own - the way I read it, you can go month to month, or turn a single month non renewing "contract" on. I was planning on setting it up with the single month International on my next trip.

While you can complain about the number of updates for Apple, too many of the Android manufacturers don't bother to put out needed updates. How many phones could easily be updated to ICS if there was any willingness on the part of the manufacturer to put the update out.

That said, Google is releasing a Google branded tablet in the future. That might be your best option.

Off Topic: I was interested in this discussion and the unnecessary comments of the trolls made we wish for just such a feature. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I have already added names to it.

On topic: I have worked with Acer tablets and have had good experiences with them so the A501 would be something I would consider. That said, personally I too am waiting to see what the Google tablet is like. It appears likely that they will partner with Asus or Samsung for the hardware. It would be especially interesting if they make a tablet themselves, once the Motorola deal is finished.

Does it have to be GSM? Bestbuy.com is currently selling refurbed Motorola Xooms for about $300, work on Verizon, no contract. Great tablet.