Motorola brought out their very first tablet computer at CES 2011, to much fanfare and praise. The tablet at CES 2011 was being called the Motorola XOOM and finally when Motorola launched the tablet in March of 2011 that was the name they stuck with.
At first glance the Motorola XOOM was crowned the Android Champion and it was expected to soon dethrone the wildly popular Apple iPad, a 9.7-inch iOS based tablet. When you compared the specifications for the XOOM and iPad it was clear the XOOM had some serious advantages.
The Motorola XOOM at launch boosted a dual-core 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor the Apple iPad available during the XOOM's launch featured a single-core 1GHz Apple A4 processor, advantage there went to the XOOM.
As for a display the XOOM featured a 10.1-inch HD resolution display that offered 1280x800 pixel resolution to the end user. On the Apple side of things the iPad's display was an IPS but it's resolution was stuck at less than HD, 1024x768 pixel resolution to be exact.
Also boosted on the Motorola XOOM was a host of connectors, while on the iPad you had only the 30-pin connector for access to a limited selection of adapters that offered some connector support for the iPad. On the XOOM there was a built-in USB 2.0 and HDMI port as well as an SD card slot for storage expansion.
This is not to mention the Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system that was being teased left and right by Google ahead of the launch of the XOOM. The first tablet specific version of Google's Android OS offered multi-tasking, customizability and a brand new never before seen interface for Android.
With those features the XOOM couldn't fail, correct? Wrong.
Motorola's first big mistake was pricing of the tablet and a variety in model offered at launch. The XOOM launched with Wi-Fi and 3G (4G was promised as an upgrade down the road) 32GB model and that was it. The only model available was available on-contract with Verizon Wireless for $699 and off-contract through Verizon Wireless and select other retailers for $799.
Those prices did not attract many folks and actually caused a big falling out with many die-hard Android fans, who had championed the XOOM early on via the Internet.
Motorola to rectify this big gaff announced a little over a month after initial launch that a Wi-Fi only XOOM would be launching at the $599 price point shortly. Shortly took a few more weeks but the tablet did finally launch in Wi-Fi only flavors at various retailers in the US in late March or early April.
However after launching the Wi-Fi only model at a lower price the sales of the XOOM didn't have a drastic up swing, which Motorola was no doubt hoping for. The XOOM Wi-Fi only had a very modest launch with little to no lines at stores and no mass inventory drainage.
But that slow launch of the Wi-Fi only model can be attributed to the fact that Apple launched their first follow-up to the Apple iPad 1 the Apple iPad 2, just weeks before the Wi-Fi only XOOM hit the market.
Another thing that hindered the sales of the XOOM was loud talk online about the tablets long list of deficiencies. The SD card reader on the XOOM did not function as it should due to software compatibility issues with Android 3.0. Adobe Flash player support was not and has not been fully available, only a gimped plug-in has been issued for the XOOM and other Android 3.0 tablets.
A major feature of the XOOM that was really being critiqued was Android 3.0 Honeycomb, application crashes were the norm for XOOM owners and they didn't keep quiet about that fact online. Also the XOOM and Android 3.0 in general suffer from a lack of application support on the Android Marketplace, the application store owned and run by Google.
So to re-cap all the problems for the XOOM let's have a look at this bulleted list below.
Price Versatility in models available Headlining features not working as they should Android 3.0 buggy Lack of application supportNow with those glaring flaws how could the XOOM have been expected to really succeed?
0
No comments:
Post a Comment