Verizon To Charge $600 For Samsung Galaxy TabVerizon To Charge $600 For Samsung Galaxy Tab

Samsung Galaxy Tablet

The Samsung Galaxy Tab, which was announced in September, runs Android 2.2 Froyo, has a 1GHz processor on board, Adobe Flash Player Mobile 10.1, a seven-inch touch display, and dual cameras.

It will be available on November 11 from Verizon Wireless for the price of $599.99. According to Verizon, the $599.99 price is unsubsidized, meaning people who choose to pay that price will own the Tab outright and not owe two years of their lives to Verizon Wireless.

Verizon is offering a month-to-month data plan, and not requiring a contract. Verizon announced a $20 monthly plan for the Tab that gives users 1GB of mobile data. The Tab also has Wi-Fi for free, non-metered browsing when at home or in coffee shops, etc.

In addition to the monthly plan, the Verizon variant of the Tab will ship with a number of Verizon-branded services on board. That includes, but is not limited to: V CAST Music and V CAST Song ID, VZ Navigator, Slacker Radio, Kindle for Android, Blockbuster On Demand, and a game called “Let’s Golf." The Tab will behave sort of like a phone, and allow for picture, text and video messaging -- but no CDMA-based voice calls.

About the price point, Verizon Wireless apparently doesn't think it is shooting itself in the foot by charging $600 for the tablet device.

"This is an incredible time in mobile technology, and as a company we’re excited to add the Samsung Galaxy Tab to our portfolio," said Marni Walden, vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless. "The Samsung Galaxy Tab brings together the reliability of Verizon Wireless' 3G network and the power of Android 2.2 to deliver on our promise of providing consumers and business customers with a host of options to help manage their lives."

Keep in mind, Apple set the pricing benchmarks for the tablet market with its $500 iPad. In fact, Verizon Wireless is actually selling the iPad in its own stores bundled with a MiFi for $630. That's an extremely tough sell. With the iPad and Tab side-by-side on Verizon's shelves, which is a customer to pick?

The iPad comes with a bigger screen and more storage, but the Tab has two cameras and can send text/picture messages. Each device has trade-offs.

What do you think? Is $600 too much for the Samsung Galaxy Tab? What will be really interesting is to see at which price point Verizon's competitors -- AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile -- choose to sell their variants of the Galaxy Ta