Tag Archives: Xoom

Was the Xoom the second or third “first real competitor” to the iPad?

March 22, 2011 – 8:23 pm

Motorola will reportedly reduce orders for its Xoom tablet starting in the second quarter of 2011, and no orders are apparently scheduled past June, suggesting a Xoom successor and newer competitor to Apple’s iPad 2 is already in the works.

via appleinsider.com

And so yet another tablet described by many pundits as “the first real competitor to the iPad” has flopped.

More and more evidence is stacking up to suggest that the iPad will be a LOT more like the iPod than the iPhone for Apple. In other words, a permanent 75-80% market share for Apple with few credible alternatives. Without the carriers, Android is going to have a hard time gaining any credibility in this space.

Tags , , |

My favorite quote of today

March 3, 2011 – 5:49 am

The Xoom tablet is trim, light, and very pretty
… but when you place it next to the iPad 2, it looks as though it
was designed and built by angry Soviet prison labor instead of by
Motorola.

via instapaper.com

From Andy Ihnatko, of course.

Tags , , , , , |

Motorola’s Xoom Flash support coming “a few weeks” after release. Hmmm.

February 22, 2011 – 5:46 pm

Honeycomb is the first version of Android designed for tablets and is eagerly anticipated. Motorola’s Xoom tablet will launch on Thursday as the first to run the software, but initial versions won’t come with Flash support. Verizon, which is putting the device on sale, previously said Flash would be available in “spring 2011.”

The vague time reference had people fearing Flash wouldn’t be available until the end of the season, but a posting on Adobe’s blog points to a slightly earlier release.

“Consumers are clearly asking for Flash support on tablet devices and the good news is that they won’t have to wait long. We are aware of over 50 tablets that will ship in 2011 supporting a full web experience (including Flash support) and Xoom users will be among the first to enjoy this benefit,” wrote Matt Rozen, on Adobe’s Flash Platform Blog.

via macworld.com

I have to agree with John Gruber on this one. The most likely reason why Motorola is shipping this thing without Flash installed is that they want the reviews to reflect “pre-Flash” battery life. Just hold off on shipping Flash by a few weeks, and the reviewers will most likely mention that Flash is “coming” but fail to report on the effect Flash will have on the battery, which is bound to be pretty big. Makes perfect sense to me.

And it ranks right up there with charging for a month of 3G data if you want to use WiFi. Some pretty desperate and slimy sales tactics on Motorola’s part.

When is somebody just going to build a legitimate device to compete with the iPad, instead of having to skirt around these tech spec lists and the fine print on price?

Tags , , , , , , |