Verizon Wireless and Motorola Mobility announced Tuesday that Motorola’s Xoom tablet will ship through Verizon Wireless beginning Feb. 24, 2011. The device will cost $800 unsubsidized, though Verizon Wireless customers can get the tablet for $600 if they agree to a two-year customer agreement that costs at least $20 a month for access using Verizon Wireless’ 3G data network.
[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]The Xoom is positioned as a direct competitor to the iPad, It sports a 1GHz dual-core microprocessor and 10.1-inch widescreen HD display. Unlike the iPad, it features a front-facing 2-megapixel video camer and a rear-facing 5-megapixel camera that captures video at 720p.
While the Xoom features 3G data access, Motorola says the Xoom will also be upgradable to Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE service at no additional charge some time during the second quarter of 2011. Another feature touted by the device that’s not ready at launch is support for Adobe Flash – “available soon as a free download,” according to the companies.
The Motorola Xoom got noticed in early February during a featured ad spot during the Super Bowl. Motorola says it’s the first device to ship using Google’s new Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” operating system.
Available as a “free download” = Adobe messed up big time. This is why Steve Jobs wants nothing to do with them. The biggest selling feature of the competitor is holed below the waterline before the launch.
An iPad competitor that has an actual shipping date, consider me impressed.
Let’s see how this one will hold up against a device that’s almost a year old.
Oh and no Flash? Uh-huh.
I’m going to go with John Gruber’s assessment, that it’s being omitted intentionally, so initial reviews don’t suffer from it.
The price point is laughable, but understandable: With the exception of HP, no company has a supply-chain-fu that’s comparable to Apple’s.
And since many consumers will probably get a data plan for it anyway, it might work.
I think the cost of entry for the Moto Xoom is a bit steep. Especially when you consider that the new iPad will more than likely up the specs but not the price.
It’s not to say that Apple will HAVE to go line for line in a spec race (it’s never been their thing); just that I’d get the currently available iPad with a Data Plan for $800 before I got a Xoom that will end up costing me at minimum $1080 over the life of a 2 year contract.
It probably depends on your needs. By this logic — and seemingly Motorola’s — the Xoom doesn’t even try to compete with the 16 & 32 GB WiFi iPads.
BTW, good to see you here 🙂
Definitely Motorola is not thinking about market penetration as much as it’s thinking about early adopters. It’s the first Honeycomb tablet to market and they’re hoping people like the latest greatest more than something that will fit a persons lifestyle/needs.
Again, I’ve read the specs and if it were a $500 (off-contract) tablet I’d give a shot; the high cost of entry all but ensures that only a very small section of consumers will give it a shot. If other tablet makers follow this model, they may as well direct people to the Apple Store (for better or worse).
PS – Thanks for sending the link.
I’m an Apple guy. Square in Apple’s ecosystem.
What is happening to Android guys in regard to this having to pay $20.00(?) for activating wi-fi on these cool looking Xoom’s you’re going to be buying?
Methinks me smells a rat here.
If Verizon is charging you to pay for a service that they can’t deliver to you at the time you purchase your new Xoom and a service you never intend to pay for because you are going to have this device live only in your house in your own wi-fi and this charge is to enable the wi-fi itself, if Verizon has the ability to activate the wi-fi on this device, how does this work? Do they have the ability to de-activate it too? Enquiring minds want to know.
If you Android guys ever decide to get together and scream there’s HORSE SHIT going on here. You got an Apple who very much wants to be there with you.
I don’t understand what’s going on here, but I can say I don’t like it at all. And for those of you that actually pay the activation fee, I’m with you if you ever decide to sue Verizon, Motorola and/or Google to get your money back for what on the face of it looks like extortion to me.
It’s not a rat I smell. It really is pure HORSE SHIT.
Harvey
This is a song that goes “Apple’s Competitors Don’t Know What They Are Competing Against”.
As far as I am concerned, the one thing Apple’s competitors routinely fail to grasp is that they are not in a spec war with a particular Apple product in a particular market: companies lie Motorola are in direct competition with Apple.
Whats the distinction? Apple has spent the last decade not only building “insanely great” products that redefine or invent new product categories, but has carefully cultivated an ecosystem that is larger than and completely envelopes any individual Apple product. When you buy an Apple product, you are, even as a new customer, immediately plugged in to a system of service, content, and support that provides measurable added value. With a software download, a few clicks to register and some “poking around”, you are immersed in a virtual environment that re-enforces the correctness of your decision to buy an Apple product.
So when Motorola or Samsung or whomever announces a product that, specification against specification beats the nearly year old iPad, the fact that they are comparing specs against said year old product as if Apple was standing still isn’t the whole story. The real story is that the competition has nothing *but* specs to lure consumers because the service, support and content environment Apple customers enjoy is nowhere to be found.
I would like to add that it is not only the services ecosystem that brings value, but also the interpretational cohesiveness between devices that bring even more added value. I have a Time-Capsule that ties my iPhone and Apple TV together with my Mac. It is amazing. Every time I show someone how I can interact with any of these devices, they are blown away.