Android 3.0 on Motorola Xoom

The February 24 launch of the Motorola Xoom tablet isn’t exactly a secret anymore and neither are the details that include a confident $800 price tag. The Xoom has also been featured in a Super Bowl 2011 commercial lineup that was filled with references to Apple products and tablets. If the commercial is any indication, then we know that Motorola will seek the direct confrontation with Apple and will aim to exploit every piece of negative perception of the Apple empire. However, Motorola may shot itself in the foot already.

Motorola Xoom

The hints to Apple’s control over its devices could not have been more subtle, yet very obvious. A lone Xoom user trapped in an endless mass of uniform people in white clothing wearing white earphones stands out and dares to walk against the stream. There aren’t any hints of the Xoom’s feature set beyond the usual -- a camera, an onscreen keyboard -- but the protagonist opens the commercial with an ebook -- George Orwell’s 1984.
We take this as a hint to Apple’s walled garden (in an environment that closely resembles the public environment described by Orwell) as well as its big brother approach to control its ecosystem and users as far as the use of applications are concerned. In Motorola’s view, the Xoom is “the tablet to create a better world.” There are small notes of Google and Android integrated in the commercial, which leads us to believe that Google may have participated in the creation of the commercial. In the end, Google used the Xoom to introduce Android 3.0 a few days ago.
The Xoom will be Google’s first strike weapon in an upcoming tablet war against the iPad. However, it won’t be easy, especially if those pictures showing an $800 price tag are accurate -- which is extremely high despite the 32 GB of integrated memory as well as two cameras and 4G LTE capability.  The leaked Best Buy ad includes a surprising note that the Xoom supports Wi-Fi, but only if you subscribe to Verizon’s data service for at least one month (there is no contract obligation). The data plan pricing ranges from $20 per month for a 1 GB volume to $80 per month for 10 GB (“data allowance”). They must be kidding.
This first strike weapon seems to be a dead fish in the water. $800 is way too high. A Wi-Fi feature you have to pay for is a really smart idea, Motorola. Really smart. Now you only have to find people dumb enough to accept it.