Motorola XOOM Super Bowl Ad Jabs At Apple

By Kevin Parrish
published

Motorola jabs at Apple's famous Macintosh ad shown during the Super Bowl back in 1984.

This week Motorola released a sneak peak of its Super Bowl trailer promoting the upcoming Android-based XOOM tablet. The new clip is more than likely just a simple teaser for the actual trailer airing during the game next weekend. Nevertheless, the message is clear: it's time for more choices.

Unsurprisingly the company has taken another jab at Apple with the ad, this time poking fun at the Cupertino-based company's Macintosh ad seen during the 1984 Super Bowl. Although the new XOOM ad isn't a blatant ripoff, it clearly uses the same theme of breaking away from the rule of one authority, one design, one way to work.

It's time for more choices, the new ad reads.

For the uninitiated, the XOOM specs are as follows:

  • OS: Andoid 3.0 Honeycomb
  • Dimensions: 249.1-mm (h) x 167.8-mm (w) x 12.9-mm (d)
  • Display: 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 resolution
  • Weight 730 g
  • Processor: dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 @ 1 GHz
  • Battery: up to 10 hour video playback
  • Memory: 32 GB on-board user memory, SD card support after software update, 1 GB DDR2 RAM
  • Camera: 5MP rear-facing camera with dual LED flash, 2MP front-facing camera
  • Video: 720p capture; 1080p playback/streaming; H.263, H.264, MPEG4
  • Audio: AAC, AAC+, AMR NB, AMR WB, MP3, XMF
  • Network: 3G, 4G LTE upgradable, 802.11n w/Personal hotspot
  • Connectivity: 3.5-mm, micro-USB 2.0 HS, Corporate Sync, Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR + HID

The Motorola XOOM tablet is expected to arrive as early as next month, followed by the 4G LTE upgrade sometime in Q2 2011. Apple is also expected to reveal the iPad 2 sometime next month as well, with a general availability in April.

Looks like February is going to be a busy month for a change.

Kevin Parrish

Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then, he’s loved all things PC-related and cool gadgets ranging from the New Nintendo 3DS to Android tablets. He is currently a contributor at Digital Trends, writing about everything from computers to how-to content on Windows and Macs to reviews of the latest laptops from HP, Dell, Lenovo, and more. 

19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • joelmartinez
    Crappy, overdone ad, certainly not the best super-bowl ad I've seen, no humor and those graphics are too epic for a tablet 2/10
    Reply
  • joytech22
    I guess it got the meaning out.
    Reply
  • jcb82
    How could it offer 1080p who's real resolution is 1920 X 1080 if the resolution of the device is 1280 X 800? Even if they really mean "playback" meaning that it can crunch 1080p content and displaying it at the device's native resolution its still deceptive advertising. I still don't get what the craze is about tablets yet. I've yet to see something being done on a tablet that's so much better to do than on a regular light portable notebook.
    Reply
  • Nakal
    Because it has HDMI out.

    http://developer.motorola.com/products/xoom/

    AUDIO/VIDEO OUTPUT HDMI 1.4
    Reply
  • roflmaonow
    The screen of the device displays 1200 x 800. The capability of the device for video playback is 1920 x 1080. If the device is connected to a display that has capability of displaying 1080p then the tablet can produce a 1080p resolution on that display.
    Reply
  • roflmaonow
    The screen of the device displays 1200 x 800. The capability of the device for video playback is 1920 x 1080. If the device is connected to a display that has capability of displaying 1080p then the tablet can produce a 1080p resolution on that display.
    Reply
  • fonzy
    And a price that's Out of this World!
    Reply
  • eddieroolz
    Nice jab, a deserved one for Apple too.
    Reply
  • These new honeycomb tablets are going to be unbelieveable. In looking at the tablet comparisons on http://www.tabletpccomparison.com this new Xoom is going to be a touch one to beat!
    Reply
  • Vladislaus
    jcb82How could it offer 1080p who's real resolution is 1920 X 1080 if the resolution of the device is 1280 X 800? Even if they really mean "playback" meaning that it can crunch 1080p content and displaying it at the device's native resolution its still deceptive advertising. I still don't get what the craze is about tablets yet. I've yet to see something being done on a tablet that's so much better to do than on a regular light portable notebook.All manufacturers do this kind of marketing. Apple for example states that the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch have 720p playback capability, yet none of these devices can show a 720p video on the device screen without resizing the image.
    Reply