The Xoom sat in Verizon's showroom garnishing very little attention. Next to it were four iPads, all being handled and played with. ((It was an extremely busy afternoon at Verizon.))
The Xoom didn't look as impressive... the screen wasn't as bright.... the body appeared to be plastic (compared to metal iPad). The screen ratio was not the nice 4to3 aspect... it was more of a video ratio (not as appealing for anything other than watching videos). So I took this opportunity to mess around with the Xoom.
Dang!! First app I opened was a version of Solitaire and it opened in a small window! Yep, same problem I had with my three Android tablets this year. Little phone-app window. Why in the world would an app like that even be on a device that's sitting in a showroom, especially a device that's trying to capture a share of the iPad's market and has a higher price to work against it?
Overall, the Xoom handled well. Much better than my three el-cheapo Android tablets, but not as good as the iPads sitting next to it. I could tell this is a tablet for computer-geeks... perhaps not the tablet for the general non-technical consumer.
Point of this post is that in the hour I was in there several folks left with iPads. Nobody left with the Xoom. Not even me. I had gone into Verizon to find a replacement for my latest krappi Android tablet and was hoping the Xoom would win me over. I left with an iPad.
I have no loyalty to brand or platform. I just want something that works the way it's supposed to... something that even my old mother can use with little problem or learning curve. Apple won over Motorola that day. That's even more surprising when you realize that I've had a year and a half of experience with Android and none with iOS!!
100,000 Xooms sold. Most sites are posting this as somewhat of a failure. But what about Motorola? Does that figure meet their expectation or were they hoping for something much greater. Heaven knows they sure spent the big bucks on a Super Bowl ad which seemed to not really aim for sales to the general public.
Perhaps Motorola is only hoping to win loyalty from computer-geek segment. If so, maybe that 100,000 is all they hoped to sell.
Last edited by pphilipp; 04-12-2011 at 01:55 PM.
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