Quote:
Originally Posted by pphilipp
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.
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now as not to go down the road of iOS vs Android but there are a couple of points where I disagree wholeheartdly
1. the aspect ratio of the screen. 16x9 widescreen is much more desirable on multiple of levels beyond just movie/video playing. for one web browsing, with the widescreen you get more if not all of the webpage real estate, less panning than the iPad.
2. the body is made up of a metal, in fact its build construction has been highly praised across the board. but to each his own I guess.
3. I just don't buy it's the "it's for techies" apple fans have been using that from day one of Android, and when people who aren't techies see what you can do on an Android phone or whatever people are actually almost blown away and then look at the limitations of their iPhones.
I was in Best Buy a couple of weekends ago and was playing around with the Xoom. A guy came up and asked if I knew anything about it. He was CLEARY not techie. I gave him a tour of what it can do, showed him the customization, the multiple homescreens, how to add widgets, apps, etc to each, showed him the YouTube app etc.
His eyes were as big as a Kids in a Candy store. He said he was comparing this to the iPad and thought the iPad was boring compared to it. I laughed because I agree 100%. I actually sold a Xoom to him, and I don't even work at Best Buy.
My point is it's not complicated to learn, most if not all is a learn once and your done. Apple does have this country under it's spell, no doubt, and it will sell more iPads but in terms of functionailty the Xoom with Honeycomb' user interface, the baked in Google functionalities ( voice commands, voice search, google search, Google Maps, Google navigation, street views etc) its multitasking (light years better than iOS) email and notifications (again light years better than iOS), web browsing(tab browsing alone makes it better) it's just a more overall interactive experience.
Now the iPad does have more customized apps as of right now. But with every single consumer electronics and computer company coming out with a Honeycomb tablet Im not in the least bit worried about more apps being developed for it sooner rather than later.
the iPad is an app launcher that is really it.