This comparison and the controversy surrounding it have made for some great Twitter battles. At this point, all the news/rumors surrounding the pricing and availability of the XOOM have left a bitter taste in my mouth. A few things are certain though.
If Motorola plans to make a progressive move in the tablet market, they have to make their product affordable. You might say that this is an obvious point. Yes. However, the tablet market is a very volatile and ripe market at the moment because no one product has really taken it yet. The ipad, regardless of what the fan boys anyone will argue, is far from a true tablet at the moment. Apple simply did with it what it does with all its new products...found an unexplored innovative niche in the market and hearts of consumers, and made something pretty to fit in it. I digress. The point is, these next gen tablets coming out from this last CES and in 2011 as a whole mark the genesis of a new gadget category. Our cell phones are getting bigger and more powerful (smartphones...Android), our laptops are getting smaller (netbooks...Chrome OS), and so where do these two gadgets, which were formally almost entirely mutually exclusive, meet? In the middle with tablet PCs.
With that said, I hope it becomes clear why the XOOM is such an important step for Motorola, Android, and mobile computing as a whole. It will be the first of its class to have the computing power and potential to stand tall and define tablet computing. However, if the only consumers capable of owning it are the ones that would've shelled out the cash for its novelty alone anyway, then its impact will be lost.
With that said, I hope it becomes clear why the XOOM is such an important step for Motorola, Android, and mobile computing as a whole. It will be the first of its class to have the computing power and potential to stand tall and define tablet computing. However, if the only consumers capable of owning it are the ones that would've shelled out the cash for its novelty alone anyway, then its impact will be lost.
Apple can afford to make cheaper tablets. They also make money off the apps and their iTunes store which only gets more exposure with the number of products they sell.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, hardware manufacturers of android do not have that luxury. But seeing how companies like Moto have been able to bring down the prices of their top of the line smartphones, I only give them a matter of time before they catch to apple in terms of pricing.