Buying a tablet is relatively straightforward, at least in my mind. If you have a lot of money, you buy an iPad. If you don’t, you buy the Nexus 7. But what if you have a lot of money and for some reason can’t stand iOS? Samsung’s got something for you called the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition. As the name implies, it’s a 10.1 inch device, and it’s got the best specs money can buy: 2560 x 1600 pixel LCD, eight core processor, 3 GB of RAM, and a stylus. Still not sold? What if Samsung told you it comes with $600 worth of digital goods?
To quote Samsung’s own website, once you register your Note 10.1, you get this:
$50 credit for music, movies and TV shows through Samsung Hub and a $25 credit for games and apps through the Google Play™ Store. New Hulu Plus users and new SiriusXM® Internet Radio users get a 3-month trial, and new Boingo users get mobile Wi-Fi access for 12 months. Also, new Audible users get 3 free audiobooks and new Zinio members get a 2-month subscription to 3 digital magazines. New BusinessWeek+ Tablet App users can also enjoy a 1-year free subscription, and new NYTimes.com + Tablet App users get a 12-week free subscription. All that, plus up to 50GB of Dropbox space—yours for 2 years from the time you set up the app.
Now yes, you’ll have to open 10 different applications to get all of that, but it’s certainly a bit more tempting than say Apple’s free iLife and iWork or Microsoft’s bundling of Office on the Surface 2, wouldn’t you say? That and I can’t imagine Samsung is spending a lot of money to make this deal happen. All the companies listed above have probably given Samsung a steep discount, or even money, to be pre-installed on the device.
Where do you sit on bundling to sell devices? I never even knew my Note II came with 50 GB of free Dropbox until I configured the app, so that was a nice surprise, but I certainly didn’t buy the phone because of that.