

Wi-Fi-Only Motorola Xoom To Hit Stores March 27 - bkaid
http://mashable.com/2011/03/16/motorola-xoom-wi-fi/

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jrockway
What I've learned from the whole Xoom debacle is that the Flash codebase must
be a massive stinking pile of shit. They can't give Linux security updates and
they can't get it to work on one of the most important non-Apple tablets in
existence.

This is why you write tests instead of adding features. Because while meeting
your deadline today is good, not ever being able to meet a deadline again is
pretty bad.

~~~
allwein
What I've learned from the whole Xoom debacle is that I don't need a feature
to actually "work" in order to use it as a main selling point. An inactive SD
slot; No Flash at launch even though that's its biggest selling point. 4G
networking, but only after you send it back in for refurbishing later this
year.

Knowing this, I'm going to start a car company and start advertising that my
cars get 1000 miles per gallon. The small print will have something about the
installation of frictionless parts at an unknown availability date.

~~~
cryptoz
> No Flash at launch even though that's its biggest selling point

I don't think that Flash is the biggest selling point... I think the biggest
selling point is that it's the most powerful tablet out there. And it sounds
like the WiFi Xoom will have Flash at launch anyway. Not really a big deal.

~~~
codedivine
It is no longer the most powerful tablet. A5 chip in the iPad 2 offers similar
CPU performance and much better graphics performance than Tegra 2 according to
Anandtech's tests.

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jokermatt999
And half the RAM of the Xoom (at least according to Gruber), so it's not as
clear cut as you make it sound.

~~~
YooLi
And yet not one review has mentioned that having 512 MB hampered performance.

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cryptoz
I hope this is easy for Canadians to purchase. All the Wi-Fi Xoom articles
today mention US retailers, many of which have Canadian stores but there
doesn't seem to be any mention of Canada. Sure, I can order it and send it up
here but they'll charge me all sorts of extra fees for that. Anyone know what
the deal is on international Xoom purchases?

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ekidd
We need cheaper Android Honeycomb tablets: Something equivalent to the WiFi-
only Xoom for $499, and lower-end devices in the $250–350 range.

Don't get me wrong, I really like my Xoom, and it's a fun device to hack on.
But Android has historically thrived on two things: "Good enough" devices, and
a huge range of form factors and price points. And we're just not there yet.

I suppose I'll have to wait a couple of months until the deluge starts. :-)

~~~
TomOfTTB
I don't think there's much that can be done with this. I spent a week with a
Xoom and while it isn't slow it isn't lightening fast either. So you can't
really cut any of the hardware specs.

The cheap Android tablets that came out before saved money by putting a sub-
par touch screen on. But last I checked Google was insisting on Multi-Touch
ability for Honeycomb tablets. So there's no way to go cheap on the screen.

So I don't see where Android tablet manufacturers could cut from. As it is
Apple's ability to buy in bulk and manufacture their own chips gives them a
huge cost advantage.

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billybob
Aw. For a second, I thought this was going to be about a Wi-Fi-only __phone
__.

When that becomes a popular product category, it will be an interesting day in
tech.

