Motorola XOOM Arrives Feb 24 Without Flash
The Motorola XOOM tablet arrives on Verizon this week.
Tuesday Verizon Wireless announced that the Android-powered Motorola XOOM tablet will be available on February 24. Yet despite Honeycomb's (Android 3.0) built-in support for Flash, Adobe's multimedia player will not come pre-installed.
"The Motorola XOOM will be available for purchase from Verizon Wireless for $599.99 with a new two-year customer agreement or $799.99 without a contract," the company said in an emailed press release. "Wireless 3G data service for the Motorola XOOM will begin at $20 monthly access for 1GB. The Motorola XOOM will be upgradeable to 4G LTE service at no additional charge in the second quarter of 2011."
In addition to highlighting the tablet's specs, Verizon said that Adobe Flash Player will be available soon as a free download. Currently version 10.1 is already listed on the Android Market. However, Verizon may be holding out for the mobile version of Adobe's just-released Flash Player 10.2 which may be more tablet-friendly than the predecessor.
Some of the hardware Verizon highlighted in Tuesday's announcement included the 1 GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, a 10.1-inch widescreen HD display, a front-facing 2MP camera for video chats, and a rear-facing 5MP camera with 720p video recording capability. Other specs include 1 GB of RAM, 32 GB of internal storage, an HDMI 1.4 output jack, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, USB 2.0, an accelerometer, a magnetometer, ambient light sensor, gyroscope, barometer and a tri-color notification light.
Given the specs, will the XOOM tablet be worth the steep price even when subsidized with a 2-year contract? "We felt that our ability to deliver 50 Mb/s would justify the $799 price point," said Motorola chief Sanjay Jha during the Mobile World Congress event. "It is 32 GB with 3G and a free upgrade to 4G. Being competitive with iPad is important. We feel that from the hardware and capabilities we deliver we are at least competitive and in a number of ways better [than the iPad]."
It will be interesting to see how many XOOM tablets will actually fly off Verizon store shelves on Thursday given the official pricetag.
UPDATE: After Verizon's announcement, Adobe cleared the air about Flash not appearing on the Motorola XOOM tablet. "Adobe will offer Flash Player 10.2 pre-installed on some tablets and as an OTA download on others within a few weeks of Android 3 (Honeycomb) devices becoming available, the first of which is expected to be the Motorola XOOM," said Adobe's Matt Rozen. "We are excited about the progress we’ve made optimizing Flash for tablets, alongside partners including Motorola, and expect our momentum to continue. We are aware of over 50 tablets that will ship in 2011 supporting a full web experience (including Flash support) and XOOM users will be among the first to enjoy this benefit."
Although no specific date was provided, Rozen said that consumers "won’t have to wait long."
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Wasn't the Xoom the tab the one that wouldn't allow you to access the built in wifi without a contract? Is that why there isn't a mention of built in wifi or is it assumed?
$20/month with a 1GB cap.....why on earth would this not qualify for the same unlimited data @ $30/month that my droid uses?! For what they are charging you would think they could allow a little more data to be used....
Once you get that 4G.....if I did my math correctly you can max it out for all of 160 seconds before the overage charges began!
Or we all just wait for the Wi-Fi version and just use Tethering to our phones that already have 3G or 4G service and save $200-$300. Why would anyone want to pay for 2 cellular plans is beyond me.
The XOOM appears to blow away all tablets but the price (and the lack of a cheaper WiFi only version) is the only thing keeping me away from it. I don't like Verizon Wireless and their pricey and capped data plan options. I'll just use my phone's 4G hotspot capability or use on of the millions of WiFi networks out there.
I like the ipad but iOS and poor pixel density @ 130dpi is a huge turn-off.
Who knows, I'll give it a good 15 minutes at the store. If it blows me away, it *may* bite.
There is a cheeper WiFi only version coming out, Motorola has it listed on their website. I believe it is going to price in the 499-599 range when it released. They wont release it until a month or two after the 3G version is out to give providers a chance to sell them with contracts.
http://www.onlinesocialmedia.net/2 [...] om-models/
Whats the point of tablets? If I am going to pay that much money I would rather have a nice laptop.
Currently, everyone is jumping on the tablet bandwagon, but really, they are great for consuming media, not much else.
Most people already have something that fits everything a tablet does. My 6 year old laptop plays flash, so go figure.
Because the form factor of a laptop doesn't suit a huge portion of the media consuming public. Many people would rather laze on their couch with a tablet in hand and have the tactile feel that touching stuff directly on screen gives you. Also a lot of people have said that using a laptop or desktop 'feels like work' and that they don't like feeling like they are in the workplace when they are at home. For browsing and consuming information, for reading ebooks and for looking at videos and pictures and sharing them with family, I much prefer the tablet aesthetics and handling, passing a laptop around is far clunkier.
When I have work to do, I go to my desk and fire up the i7-950 and the big screen, but when I'm relaxing I find the tablet consumes much more of my time than my i7 2.8 laptop, which is gathering dust most nights.
according to review at anand, the software is not yet fully stable.