The Motorola Xoom will Cost… $800!

By dag | January 21, 2011 | 9 comments

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According to Android Central, Motorola’s upcoming tablet, the Xoom, will cost a whopping $799, almost twice as much as the cheapest iPad available today, and $70 more than the (almost) equivalent 32GB 3G iPad.

Motorola seems fairly confident that its tablet will be a major smash hit, as the price of the Xoom seems incredibly high when compared to what’s already available today. Sure, the tablet will sport a dual-core CPU, and the latest version of Android, but when the iPad 2 ships in a couple of months, these advantages may prove to be short-lived. In other words, and unless Apple significantly increases the price of its upcoming tablet, understanding Motorola’s pricing policy is challenging – at best.

The Xoom will also be quite more expensive than the Galaxy Tab, the most successful Android tablet so far. While the Galaxy Tab sold fairly well, the number of units sold so far is very modest when compared to the iPad, and Verizon even had to drop the price of the tablet from $599 to $499, to help it better compete with Apple’s tablet. While Motorola’s tablet will likely be light years ahead of Samsung’s, Motorola may learn what the average tablet buyer is willing to spend the hard way, and may be forced to lower the price of its tablet as well.

Meanwhile, Apple quietly started to manufacture the second generation iPad, expected to be priced similarly to the first generation of the tablet. Note that the iPad 2 is expected to come with a dual-core CPU as well, and should hit store shelves within the next two months.

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About dag: Certified geek

http://www.sebastianhahn.de Sebastian

Way too expensive. People WILL settle for the original – not the copy (most of all for some crappy AND expensive copy). Dual CPU is a “must-have” for geeks who buy stuff for the sake of Tech specs. I have not encountered a single operation which the A4-chip in my iPad couldn’t handle in the same swift manner, so what’s the point.

I remember the first encounter with my brother in law after getting my iPad. He kept asking me about all these tech specs which I didn’t care about one bit. It’s. Ice to know stuff about your device, but buying computers or tablets just for the sake of tech specs is stupid (and very PC-like).

When buying Macs it’s just the same. Most desktop and mobile Macs are not extremely up-to-date when it comes to all aspects of their hardware. But they make gorgeous use of what they have inside. That’s the difference. And I think this is relevant for the iPad just as well…

paul

Don’t act like you or Apple don’t care about tech specs. Apple flaunts them all the time. You yourself mentioned the A4 chip. The average Apple consumer wouldn’t even know what A4 means. They just care that what they bought is an iPhone/Pad, regardless of what their other viable choices are.

Plus, I highly doubt you’ve handled the Android 3.0 OS yet. To call it crappy already without even trying it yet is very “Apple-like”
shane

lol, yah lets compare pc sales to mac sales.. the same is going to happen with the iphone/ipad.. they will become a niche market, the majority of consumers will goto where they can have a choice in the type of hardware and software they can run, and personalize.. history is just repeating itself.. apple has done a great job on taking advantage of their head start this time around by using the popularity of their ecosystem to drive more mac sales, but that will not last either.. but hey, enjoy the look from the top whileit lasts

Mercury

I am neither supporter of Apple nor Android. But, let me share my experience with Android.

I wanted to buy a smartphone. After much research, I bought Droid 2 Global supposedly having latest ‘Android’ OS(froyo) with best hardware in the world. Since then, every other day I am discovering new limitations of this device. I fear, I may start hating it.
Just to give an example, I want to use a voip app which will use just data plan not my cellphone minutes. There is no app in the android market.
Apple app store has many. Even Nokia store has some cool app.
I contacted support team. They said they are not supporting because of ‘technology limitations’ thereby acknowledging that Android ‘technology’ is inferior compared to others in the domain.

Even though Android came after iPhone, I feel its UI design, responsive is inferior to Apple iOS. But, it is my personal observation. You can choose to disagree.

AlfieJr

Moto obviously cannot manufacture the Xoom at as low a cost as Apple can the iPad. due to the scale of production and Apple’s ability to finance new factories and prepay for key components. plus Apple’s economies from custom design, working with Foxcom, compared to Moto’s contract assembly of commercial parts.

iPad 2′s hardware features and specs will certainly be comparable to the Xoom, if not superior. and then there is the iOS/iTunes ecosystem …

even worse for Moto, the pent up demand by Android fanboys and early adopters for an Android tab has already been consumed by the Samsung Galaxy (who have been played for total suckers, since the Galaxy apparently can’t be updated with Honeycomb). that leaves very few potential buyers willing to pay $800 for a tablet compared to the “real thing” at significantly lower price.

so only way Moto can go is to sell the Xoom at a lower subsidized price via the telcos with a two year contract. but consumers hate those contracts …

shane

well i for one own 2 ipads that are going away as soon as a the android tablet hits that meets all the features im looking for. so not all of s potential buyers ran out to get galaxy tabs.. the tablet market potential is many times larger than it is today, and i guarantee you that android will have the largr numbers in both phones and tablets in 2-5 years by a large margin.

http://www.xoomcommunity.com Motorola Xoom

Fail! This price must come down in order for Moto to have a successful product!

shane

i remb everyone saying the same about the iphone and ipad… moto is taking advantage of being first with android 3.0 and so why not set the orice high to start.. you can always drop it when the other android tablets hit with 3.0, or ipad 2 hits.. make the money while you can