The primary complaint — or at least concern — that tech enthusiasts have had about the Motorola Xoom tablet is its price. Worries stem not only from how much it will cost, but how that cost will compare to Apple’s iPad, the Xoom’s most obvious direct competitor.
Well, now Motorola has officially unveiled the price of its Wi-Fi-only Xoom tablet PC: £450, or around $730, according to Engadget. That puts the price of the Xoom Wi-Fi at £60 less than the going rate for the 32GB Wi-Fi-only iPad, and only £10 more than the 16GB iPad. Not too shabby.
Additionally, T-Mobile Germany — which has exclusive carrier rights to the Xoom in that country — has also announced the Xoom’s price: €699.95 for the Wi-Fi + 3G model. This puts the Xoom at only 95 Euro cents above the 32GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad.
Reports from the middle of February indicate that the Xoom will be priced at $799 for the Wi-Fi + 3G model, available only through Verizon Wireless, and $600 for the Wi-Fi-only version.
Both models of the Motorola Xoom run on Android 3.0 Honeycomb, and measure 10.1-inches — slightly larger than the iPad — with a 1280×800 resolution display. The Xoom is powered by the 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor, comes loaded with 1GB DDR2 RAM, and includes 32GB of internal storage for all models. The Motorola tablet also comes with two cameras, one front-facing (2MP), one back-facing (5MP), with an LED flash.
How well the Xoom will do depends heavily on what Apple announces during its Wednesday event, where the company is expected to unveil the second-generation iPad. The Xoom’s pricing makes it competitive with the current iPad model. But that’s doesn’t mean Apple won’t throw a wrench into Motorola’s gears with this week’s announcement.
