[FFR]

It's only stupid to you because you failed to understand what he said. He obviously didn't mean Google and Moto were hoping that the Xoom would sell less than 1 million units, but that they were not expecting to sell that many. So honestly, what you wrote is one of the dumbest things I've read all day.

Really thats pretty funny because he said:

Some people dont get it. Google and Moto didnt want to sell millions at launch. This unit was basic a developer model that they went public with to work out the kinks. By the time the wifi gets released all feature of this unit will work and I predict sales will be tremendous. I want this tab so bad it is all I think about, but 800 is too much especially when I will never use V's network when I can tether to my evo 4g for 20 a month...UNLIMITED!!

last I checked "want" and "expect" are not interchangeable.

[darkshade]

I'm not going to play a game of semantics with you, but I feel bad for you if you can't understand a sentence for what it very clearly means.

[dcreed]

Having used a cow-orker's [sic] iPad, and used my own rooted Nook Color, I can say I like the 7" form factor more; it's carrying a book rather than a stiff magazine. And while the Nook doesn't have all the bells and whistles (cameras, GPS, 3G), I don't much care. I would like it to be faster, more stable, etc. But the price point was great.

Considering the , too, I think people are looking for a different feature-set than what Motorola and Crapple are providing. (Okay, the Apple fanboys and -girls will line up in their PJs because it's in their EULA.) A decent, stable, sub-$500 ($400? $300) tablet without cameras, GPS, and WiFi-only...betcha it'd fly off the shelves.

I wonder what the Asus tablets will bring.

[FFR]

I'm not going to play a game of semantics with you, but I feel bad for you if you can't understand a sentence for what it very clearly means.

#fail

[milominderbinde]

...Or they can all buy an iPad 2, and they are. How many would have bought a Xoom for 500 bucks instead -- a good many I'll wager...

The Xoom is not floundering because of any spec but one...price.

As the :

Xoom sales have been underwhelming. While marketing has just started we believe MMI will likely have to cut production if it already has not done so. We believe the device has been a bit buggy and did not meet the magic price point of $500. We believe management knows this and is hurrying development and production of lower cost tablets. Importantly we believe management will likely have to make the painful decision to accept little to no margin initially in order to match iPad 2’s wholesale pricing.

For $800 you get to hang out with the Computer Club at Verizon.

[tcranenj]

I think the projections and comparisons for android tablet growth based on android phone growth may not work. When it came to finding a niche in the smartphone market, at least at it pertains to catching and surpassing the iPhone, there was an opening that android phones could take advantage of. Namely, the iPhone sucked as a phone. This was especially true of the iPhone 4. When you combine the overburdened AT&T network with the antenna issue, the iPhone 4 was probably the worst cell phone on the market. Combined with the fact that Verizon seemed to be the preferred network for most folks and it's easy to see why android phones have done as well as they have.

Conversely, what hole in the tablet market will android get to fill? The only population I see android tablets having to themselves are folks who like tech-geek level customization in their consumer electronics. Fortunately, there are a few million of those folks but, unfortunately, there are not tens of millions of them. Android tablets will improve and I fully expect there to be an excellent device or two running Honeycomb 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, etc. in the coming months. But, there isn't a fundamental vacancy for android tablets to fill analogous to the one that was available to android phones.

Another point. There's one burgeoning tablet market that Apple pretty much has all to itself right now and will have to itself for the foreseeable future - education. Plenty of schools have introduced iPads into their classrooms and the numbers are likely to grow noticeably heading into the 2011-2012 school year. Along with the initial tablet sales to these school, Apple will also gain valuable exposure to young consumers, many of whom will want to buy a tablet to bring to college.

Put it all together and I'll be shocked if Apple holds anything less than 80% of the tablet market this time next year. I know there are projections for android to dominate in 2014, but predictions in the tech market that are 3 years out are just plain silly. Is anyone buying consumer electronics based on the 3 year predictions of some random market analyst?

[markle.michael]

Maybe I missed something like where your getting your information but the Xoom does have WIFI. And you other point about a 16GB model again, I'm lost as to what you are saying as the Xoom has 32GB of built-in storage.

Care to clarify what your saying again?

Clarify...Yes, they indeed shipped it with wifi, forcing you to purchase one month of prepaid service through verizon. Fail.

And quit calling it an LTE device, it's not an LTE device and will not deliver 4G speeds. In it's current incarnation, it is impossible for it to deliver 4G speeds without forcing the consumer to send the device back to the factory for "warranty repair".

If they had spent so much money in R&D, where's the 16gb model? Or the 64gb model? Why not release it through all four major US carriers. Why not subsidize the price? Why not just release it unsubsidized in the wifi only fair?

I realize Motorola isn't Apple, Nor is Google. However, consumer demand is clearly saying that the iPad 1 or 2 is the standard fare, and until Motorola and Google, and any other manufacturer developing android tab's get their ducks in line and try to actually compete with Apple and it's products, consumer demand will not keep up.

[jeff327]

[QUOTE=markle.michael;711258]Clarify...Yes, they indeed shipped it with wifi, forcing you to purchase one month of prepaid service through verizon. Fail.

You did not have purchase one month of service. Verizon announced this was not a requirement the day the Xoom came out.

[admorris#AC]

Wrong...you don't have to purchase a month of service if you get the xoom from Verizon. On another note, I kept my xoom for one night and unfortunately had to pay a $70 restocking fee. It was choppier than my ipad, had **** for apps, the mobile view in the browser was the straw that broke my back. Having no ability to change that was proof to me that testing on this device was substandard at best. Going to wait for HP Touchpad...hopefully they'll do better with webos than palm did.

[superbike81]

No ability to change it? There was widespread word on all of the forums for how to change it to open desktop websites on the day it came out. Just use a simple debug command in the browser.



For everyone else, the Xoom has Flash now, I'm using it right now. It works about 3000x better than "Frash" on my jailbroken iPad.

[slinky317]

Wrong...you don't have to purchase a month of service if you get the xoom from Verizon. On another note, I kept my xoom for one night and unfortunately had to pay a $70 restocking fee. It was choppier than my ipad, had **** for apps, the mobile view in the browser was the straw that broke my back. Having no ability to change that was proof to me that testing on this device was substandard at best. Going to wait for HP Touchpad...hopefully they'll do better with webos than palm did.

Ten seconds of research would have shown how to change it so you don't get the mobile view for websites.

(Posted from my HTC Droid Incredible)

[gdbjr]

Yeah, probably true. I think a year and a half from now nothing will be able to touch Honeycomb tablets.

Are you insane? A year and a half and you think honeycomb will still matter???

Then again as slow as some manufactures are to update honeycomb might still be on tablets, but it will be completely out of date.

[patfactorx]

If the WiFi model is the "actual tablet strategy" then where is it? Why did Moto abandon it's real tablet strategy for a marketing ploy? I think Moto has no strategy, and depended on Verizon just as they did with the Droid.

You're right about one thing -- Motorola is not Apple. Apple puts products people want into their hands, at a price point they have convinced people is reasonable. According to you, Motorola drops their strategy (whatever it may be) at the will of a carrier. I'll say with certainty that more iPad 2's have been sold in the first 2 hours of sales than Moto will sell this month through Verizon.

The hardware is not as good. The interface is restrictive. The DRM on the content is downright draconian. Yet they sell a ton of them. There is a reason, and love them or hate them, the folks at Apple give people what they want. Motorola hasn't yet.

I don't think its entirely about having a "tablet strategy" even though most analysts talk that way. I think its more about having a carrier strategy.

Motorola is never going to make the most money by selling direct to consumers. The consumer market is actually really fickle. (That's why companies like Dell and Microsoft choose to focus so much on enterprise even though they have a huge retail presence) Apple might be doing well right now but they also don't have partners that give them leverage for the future. What happens when the weight of developers start shifting toward Android and Amazon starts killing iTunes? Steve Jobs and Johnathan Ives won't be there forever and without aggressive innovation they are dead in the water.

Motorola should take a cue from Microsoft and IBM. It's about the partners. Apple is nowhere near as profitable as those companies because they live and die by their next product while Microsoft and IBM can coast because of their partnerships. Motorola doesn't want to live and die by their products. They want Verizon as a long term partner who buys anything they make.

[accordngs]

^^^^ Not to mention you could download one of the 5 other browsers available in the market that you could easily change that setting as well.

This thread has shown some crazy expectations of people:

1. Did anyone really think there would be 10000 optimized tablet apps within 2 weeks of launch. I mean come on!

2. Did Moto rush this to beat the iPad2? I don't know --- but what I do know is that even in its "rushed" current state, it is better than the iPad2 in nearly every regard other than apps.




And why do we keep comparing the iPad and Xoom?

The Xoom is truly closer to a personal computer, offering better multi-tasking that is more closely related to a computer.

The iPad is a giant app player that excels at that one feature -- being an app player. If that is all you need, awesome...go for it. I would almost be willing to argue that my Evo has more capabilities that the iPad. My personal goal is to replace my laptop....so the closer I get to having a full Windows 7/8 tablet, the happier I am.

[bbearhug]

A yeah and a half ago so called analysts said Android had no shot of over taking Apple or RIM. Well, a yeah and a half later Android owns the phone market and there is no end in site. With that being said the love affair with Apple and their good but not great products will always continue. But the facts will be the facts and Google will one day dominate this market as well.

We all know Apple was the one who started it all, but now they are playing catch up. They may dominate the tablet market but they are already playing catch up with the technology. There time as the leader on the phone side has passed and in a year or two you will see the same with tablets.

So, I say I love my Xoom and who cares if sales are off to a good start or not. This is a marathon and not a sprint.

Actually, a year and a half ago Android was projected to take over by 2014 and 6 months ago they bumped up the projected time scale to 2012 . #facts

[Quasar]

Verizon needs to get behind the Xoom and be ready to show people its added benefits over iPad. I know somebody who went in on the 10th and was sold an iPad 1 without the sales girl even mentioning the Xoom or that the iPad 2 would be out the next day. She just saw that he was an older gentleman and sold him what she figured would be most simple for him to use. Today, after I told him about the Xoom and compared it's feature to his iPad, he took it back and got a Xoom. It wasn't hard to show him how to get the most use out of it. The same sales girl even tried to talk him out of the Xoom because she felt it would be to complicated for him.

[admorris#AC]

Ten seconds of research would have shown how to change it so you don't get the mobile view for websites.

(Posted from my HTC Droid Incredible)

My mistake then, although that alone wouldn't have changed my mind about the xoom. It was still quite choppy, no where near as smooth as even the original iPad. I can't even imagine how it would compare to the newest iPad. I have always been a HUGE Android fan...I currently own the Evo since day one...it has been rooted almost since the first day as well. I have always had a disdain for Apple, but figured I would try the iPad. I now get their philosophy with "experience" over specs. I don't know how they could make the older version of iPad so much smoother than the latest and greatest dual core setup, but they have.

Please refrain from flaming, as I seem to be one of the few on here that has actually owned both...so I am not coming from a bias in either direction, I am speaking fact. The ONLY thing I wish Apple would incorporate in their pads would be widgets...if they would do that, Android tablets might as well cancel Christmas...they would be done.

[azari]

admorris - I briefly owned an iPad (1) and now have the Xoom. Not sure what was wrong with your Xoom ('choppy'), but mine is smoother and faster than my iPad was. Don't get me wrong, I liked the iPad for what it is, but the Xoom gets me approx. 95% toward replacing my laptop (using PocketCloud), which is what I am aiming for. I used my iPad really like a 'blown up' iPod Touch...

Got the OTA update last night, and should have flash 10.2 within the next 2 weeks - this will make the device even better.

[admorris#AC]

admorris - I briefly owned an iPad (1) and now have the Xoom. Not sure what was wrong with your Xoom ('choppy'), but mine is smoother and faster than my iPad was. Don't get me wrong, I liked the iPad for what it is, but the Xoom gets me approx. 95% toward replacing my laptop (using PocketCloud), which is what I am aiming for. I used my iPad really like a 'blown up' iPod Touch...

Got the OTA update last night, and should have flash 10.2 within the next 2 weeks - this will make the device even better.

Yea, I was thinking maybe I just got a crappy one, but started looking at more and more reviews saying the same thing. Pinch to zoom is not as responsive, the screen is not as responsive, as I found myself having to tap on icons several times from time to time. I could have dealt with the no flash and lack of apps, as I knew that stuff going in, but the issues listed above along with force closings and locking up I was not willing to deal with for $800. So I reluctantly gave verizon $70 of my hard earned money for one damn night of usage...lol.

[dmcman73]

My wife has the original iPad and I have the Xoom. Placing them side by side and browsing the web (Wifi) the xoom is slightly faster. Scrolling, both are smooth as silk.

People who are saying the Xoom is choppy must have loaded a crap full of apps that were not made for Honeycomb causing the choppiness.

As for the "Not enough apps" argument, get your head of of Steve Job's A$$. When the iPad was first launched there were NOT enough apps optimized for it. When the iPod touch was launched..there were NOT enough apps for it. When Xbox was launched, there were like 10 games at launch...I could keep going on and on and on.

As for price, the price of the Xoom with3G/4G/WiFi, 32GB of ram Expandable to whatever the SD slot will accept, 1 GB of system memory is in line with the iPad 2 with 3G/WiFi, 512Meg system memory and 64Gig of RAM not expandable; so stop comparing the Xoom to a sub base model with no 3G and 16GB of storage. Thats like saying Apple should bring their top line 64GB Ipad 2 to the same price point as the Nook color...after all, they are both tablets...no?

People seem to forget all the issues and problems Apple has had with launch of any new product, it wasn't all rosy for them either, they just had a year to fix it all.

[azari]

Wow. Sorry to hear that - definitely a different experience than mine. A couple of apps (e.g. Weatherbug) are what I would consider 'not as smooth' as on my Incredible, but I think that is mostly because they are not (yet) optimized for the tablet. I think we are seeing growing pains not unsimilar to the original iPad (anybody remember the wifi issues there?!)

The iPad 2 is a great looking device; and while it's not in line with my needs, I am sure you'll be happy with it, even w/o flash capabilities

(...) Pinch to zoom is not as responsive, the screen is not as responsive, as I found myself having to tap on icons several times from time to time. (...)

[p08757]

My wife has the original iPad and I have the Xoom. Placing them side by side and browsing the web (Wifi) the xoom is slightly faster. Scrolling, both are smooth as silk.

People who are saying the Xoom is choppy must have loaded a crap full of apps that were not made for Honeycomb causing the choppiness.

As for the "Not enough apps" argument, get your head of of Steve Job's A$$. When the iPad was first launched there were NOT enough apps optimized for it. When the iPod touch was launched..there were NOT enough apps for it. When Xbox was launched, there were like 10 games at launch...I could keep going on and on and on.

As for price, the price of the Xoom with3G/4G/WiFi, 32GB of ram Expandable to whatever the SD slot will accept, 1 GB of system memory is in line with the iPad 2 with 3G/WiFi, 512Meg system memory and 64Gig of RAM not expandable; so stop comparing the Xoom to a sub base model with no 3G and 16GB of storage. Thats like saying Apple should bring their top line 64GB Ipad 2 to the same price point as the Nook color...after all, they are both tablets...no?

People seem to forget all the issues and problems Apple has had with launch of any new product, it wasn't all rosy for them either, they just had a year to fix it all.

My thoughts exactly.

[dhendriksen]

This thread is so full of BS it's not even funny. None of us know how out is or isn't selling, so why argue and speculate?

[ishore99]

I like my Xoom and do not regret its purchase. Plain and simple.

[voghan]

I like my Xoom and do not regret its purchase. Plain and simple.

I agree, I'm happy with my xoom.