

Xoom off to a rocky start after slow sales - bane
http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/xoom-off-to-a-rocky-start-after-slow-sales-20110311/

======
bane
An $800 device competing with a $500 one, with bizarre wi-fi usage rules and
weird purchasing paths for consumers didn't do well? This is my complete and
utter lack of surprise.

~~~
tomkarlo
More than that, it's an unknown/unproven $800 device and OS competing with a
well-established, well-known $500 one.

"Hey, we know you've never heard of this product, but it's just like the iPad
and costs a lot more!"

~~~
headShrinker
... And the manufacturer has a reputation for producing subpair products with
subpair updating schemes.

------
_frog
The Xoom just looks embarrassingly out of touch with everything that's
happening around tablets.

Motorola keeps advertising features that the average user doesn't care about
whether that's their specs, (currently non-existent) flash support or
(currently non-existent) support for 4G networks.

If anyone is going to take market share away from Apple they sure as hell
won't do it by checking boxes on some feature list.

Think about this, have you ever seen a single Xoom ad featuring a person
actually using and enjoying the tablet?

~~~
YooLi
"Think about this, have you ever seen a single Xoom ad featuring a person
actually using and enjoying the tablet?"

Agreed. The only commercial I keep seeing for the Xoom has a man walk up to
the Xoom and touch it and then some soft of robot/alien ship materializes
around him (transformer style), then it looks like he is piloting the ship
somehow but he is really just swiping the Xoom with his finger. It looks like
it is in the future, but it's dark and depressing.

The iPad commercial show grandparents laughing while they watch their
grandchild open a present on their birthday via facetime on their iPad.

I honestly can't see why people aren't relating to the Xoom.

~~~
pkulak
Yeah, that ad is just depressing.

------
VladRussian
ok, you can't produce inexpensive hardware, ok, you can't do software, it is
all understandable deficiencies ...

but why couldn't you make rounded corners of the tablet a little bit more
pointy (ie. of a lesser radius) so it wouldn't look like a thick black pancake
with small screen in the center where my butter piece usually is?

I'm not a fun of Apple, i'm just embarrassed that the whole world couldn't
produce anything even close comparable.

------
Kylekramer
Funny how quick people are willing to believe a random analyst when it aligns
with their viewpoint.

I wonder if they'd feel the same after hearing that the same guy just touted
Blackberry as a strong buy due to the Playbook.

~~~
headShrinker
The reviews have not been good. It's not hard to believe the public isn't
buying. Geeks want this product, not the public.

------
icefox
I blame it on the fact that the buttons are where your thumb rests. :) I
wonder how long that will last before they are moved.

