Xoom--Not selling very well

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

The 3G Xoom isn't a mainstream consumer product. It was picked because Verizon anointed it to be the first 4G tablet and its a marketing ploy. Carriers play the long game. The Xoom 4G isn't a Motorola product it's a VZW marketing tool.

The WiFi Xoom is Motorola's actual tablet strategy.

Motorola IS NOT Apple. Stop saying they have to be like Apple. They do not have their own retail channel or a huge manufacturing base. They win through partnerships with carriers. They want to be a software/hardware hybrid company and are more like Microsoft than they are like Apple and last time I checked MSFT is KILLING AAPL in profitability (Though their stock sucks cuz Ballmer is failsauce).

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.

 

[xzigraz]

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.

You are exactly right, the moto is not giving us what we want and that's why we are holding out by not buying it.

 

[timo2387]

If anyone at Motorola thought the Xoom would have great sales numbers while being priced at $800, that person should be fired.

Exactly, Its the pricing which is the main factor of its bad sails!! I think people would have been ok with waiting for the updates to 4g, sd card and flash but when it comes down to it...in this economy people cant afford a $800 Price tag. Simple really.

 

[GenTsoChicken]

I agree with previous post it. With all the features missing from the Xoom it would have been a surprise if the Xoom would have sold well. You can tell Motorola/Verizon rushed to get the Xoom out before the iPad2 and now it has backfired.

 

[slinky317]

Motorola released a feature-incomplete tablet priced higher than anything else in the market with no cheaper tiered alternatives, and had no marketing campaign that actually showed why their device was better than the competition.

What did they expect?

 

[Dhamp2g]

I want android tabs to do well but at a lower price.

 

[anon(20681)]

I agree with previous post it. With all the features missing from the Xoom it would have been a surprise if the Xoom would have sold well. You can tell Motorola/Verizon rushed to get the Xoom out before the iPad2 and now it has backfired.

Why would they rush out the Xoom before the I pad? So they could have a whole 2 weeks exclusive before the I pad? The fact is there is no way any single Motorola product will ever beat an Apple product. Just as no single Android phone has beat the I phone. But android as a whole dominates the I phone. So let the naysayers complain about price, it not being ready, too many missing functions coming soon that apple will never have.

All I know is I am thrilled with my Xoom and it will only get better next week.

Let's talk in 2 years when numerous reports show android dominates the ipad? Which still is the same as the ipad2 before it. Well, maybe they will have added a 2 megapixel camera at that point.

 

[deezus]

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!!

 

[FFR]

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!!

Kudos kind sir.
That is the dumbest thing i have read all day.

 

[anon(167668)]

Kudos kind sir.
That is the dumbest thing i have read all day.

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.

 

[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.

 

[anon(167668)]

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 WSJ article, 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 article said:

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]

Android table growth?

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.

 

[anon(20681)]

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.