Announced almost a week ago, Motorola Xoom tablet loaded with Android 3.0 Honeycomb is now on sale both online as well as at retail outlets. This is surprising because Motorola hasn’t officially announced the market operating price of Xoom tablet yet. A spokesperson said on behalf of Motorola that the official market prices of the device would be announced shortly.
The market operating price of Motorola Xoom WiFi is about Rs 34,500 and its WiFi+3G model costs Rs 41, 500. Xoom WiFi is available online at a price ranging from approximately Rs 31,500 to Rs 32,500; while the WiFi+3G model is available at approximately Rs 39,000 to Rs 39,300.
Motorola Xoom tablet was first unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show 2011, along with Android 3.0 Honeycomb, a tablet-specific operating system. Housing a powerful dual core 1 GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 system on chip, Xoom has a 10.1 inch widescreen HD (1280 x 800 pixel) display. With a 5 Megapixel camera at the back and a 2 megapixel camera on the front, the Motorola tablet certainly packs an impressive set of features.
India already has Apple iPad 2, a 7 inch Samsung Galaxy Tab, Creative Ziio, Acer Iconia, and BlackBerry PlayBook in its tablet segment and now Xoom has joined the competition. Next month, we expect Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Asus Transformer, and ViewSonic ViewPad tablets to hit Indian markets.
Usually, tablets are available in 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB versions — all mostly possessing 1 GHz single or dual core processors. For all these tablets, the balance of price and features plays a crucial role. This is because potential buyers always tend to evaluate whether to go for a high end tablet or to buy an entry level laptop for about Rs 35,000.
Nowhere do we see tablets actually replacing netbooks or entry level laptops. However, these new products certainly are setting up a new gadget segment altogether.