After various reports claiming that Motorola’s Xoom sales were disappointing, it’s not surprise that its first quarter numbers are less than impressive. According to the Motorola Mobility’s financial statement, it shipped only 250,000 Xoom tablets. While these numbers outdo the depressingly low estimate of 100,000 units shipped that Deutsche Bank analysts predicted at the beginning of April, they aren’t anything to get excited about.
The Xoom has had the cards stacked against it from the start. The extremely expensive tablet launched before it had integrated 4G or fully supported Flash, which were supposed to set it apart from the competition – most notably, the iPad and iPad 2. It doesn’t seem fair to compare, but context seems necessary:
- Apple sold 300,000 iPads during its opening weekend.
- Samsung shipped more than 600,000 Galaxy Tabs in its first month.
- First day sales for the BlackBerry PlayBook are expected to outdo both the Galaxy Tab and the Xoom: Some analysts predict BlackBerry sold 50,000 units in one day.
It’s somewhat discouraging news for the Xoom, which was supposed to be the best answer to the iPad yet, and also introduce the world to Honeycomb, Android’s tablet-optimized OS. But it’s not all bad news for Motorola, which reported $3 billion in net revenues, 22-percent more than last year’s first quarter postings.
