subject: Weekly Poll: To Xoom or Not to Xoom? [print this page] Weekly Poll: To Xoom or Not to Xoom? Weekly Poll: To Xoom or Not to Xoom?
This week, the highly anticipated Motorola Xoom tablet launched togenerally favorable reviews. WSJ's Walt Mossberg evensaid it is the "first truly comparable competitor to Apple's hit iPad." But the Xoom shipped with something else gadget bloggers couldn't help but take note of - an expensive price tag. The base price for the Xoom without a contract is $800. With a Verizon Wireless contract, it's still $600. A more affordable, Wi-Fi only Xoom is not available at this time. (In the U.S. that is.Europe is another matter). In comparison, an entry-level iPad is $499.
And price is not the only concern tablet shoppers have.
Xoom...or an iPad 2?
Another big "if" is the iPad 2. The elephant in the room of all Xoom reviews is Apple's forthcoming announcement regarding its next generation tablet computer. Expected to be thinner, lighter and camera-equipped, the iPad already has access to an application ecosystem with around60,000native tablet apps. Meanwhile, the Xoom, which runs Google's new tablet-optimized Android "Honeycomb" operating system, has far fewer third-party apps available at launch. That may change in time, of course. But it's worth noting that despite Android's overall market share gains, the platform overall still has fewer apps than iPhone (350,000 for iPhone vs maybe 150,000-200,000 for Android). In the app game, Apple products are far, far ahead.
Of course, we'll know more next week after Apple's March 2 press conference takes place.
Pros and Cons
That said, there are things Xoom can do that iPad - version 1 or 2 - cannot. For starters, its native Honeycomb apps built by Google are impressive, innovative, and, in some cases, subjectively speaking, "better" than their iPad counterparts. The Xoom has a different user interface overall thanks to Honeycomb, which some may prefer. With its unique take on multi-tasking, its 3D widgets and customizable homescreens, some users may find the operating system more modern, or more attractive. Again, entirely a subjective opinion.
In a few weeks time, the Xoom will also support Flash video, which the iPad does not (that's either a pro or con, depending on what side of the fence you're on in this hot tech debate). And the Xoom will be upgradable to 4G/LTE, albeit through a somewhat complicatedprocess involving backing up and wiping your data from the tablet (as is recommended) and then shipping it off for a week for a hardware upgrade. Is that a pro or a con?
But at the end of the day, if the Xoom is the first real contender to the iPad, which many agree it is, will it sell? That is the question.
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