Are YOU serious? Do you really think phones have to be "activated" before they can work with a phone network? That's just American phone network operators conning you. There's absolutely no reason at all why your operator has to have any involvement whatsoever in which phone you buy or use. It would be like your ISP telling you that your PC has to be "activated", or your electricity company telling you that your toaster has to be "activated". It's just a lie pure and simple. I'm outside America, and I can put my SIM card in any device I want, and it works straight away. My network operator doesn't know or care what I use, as long as I pay my phone bill they're happy. Fair enough, and this is a more sensible entry price of course, the original was ludcriously high. It's just weird how many people are comparing the $199 here with the $400 that a tablet costs on its own without a contract, because they're not really the same kind of price: one is an initial payment, the other is a total payment.