Motorola's Xoom remains the Android tablet to beat, but the high price may be scaring off the public. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Motorola’s 2011 Android lineup looked like it would give Apple a run for its money. But high prices and second-place product reviews may be defeating Motorola while its feet are barely out of the blocks.
Sales trends for Motorola’s Xoom tablet and its Atrix smartphone have been “disappointing,” according to James Faucette, analyst for research firm Pacific Crest. Faucette doesn’t provide any specific numbers, and Motorola hasn’t released sales figures, but analysts from Deutsche Bank are estimating the sales of the Xoom at 100,000 units sold within the tablet’s first month-and-a-half of availability, according to a Dow Jones wire report. Compare that to the 300,000 iPads sold on Day One of the tablet’s release a year ago.
Price is a big problem for Motorola. Consumer Reports ranked Motorola’s $800 3G, 32-GB version of the Xoom as equivalent to the 3G, 32-GB version of Apple’s first generation iPad, which goes for $580. Apple’s recently debuted iPad 2 topped Consumer Reports’ list of the 10 most-promising tablets.
However, the Xoom still remains the most viable competitor to the iPad 2, says Consumer Reports. Both tablets boast 10-inch screens, 3G and Wi-Fi capability, but the magazine concedes that the Xoom offers a few features the iPad 2 doesn’t — e.g., a built-in memory-card reader and Flash support.
The Xoom will also be upgradable for use on Verizon’s 4G network for free in the future, whereas Apple has no immediate plans to utilize any of the current 4G networks with its devices.
Each of the tablets on CR’s list was evaluated on 17 criteria, including ease of use, touchscreen responsiveness, versatility and screen glare. Tablets from Dell, Archos, Samsung and Viewsonic were also among those tested.
“So far Apple is leading the tablet market in both quality and price,” Paul Reynolds, electronics editor at Consumer Reports, said in a statement. “However, it’s likely we’ll see more competitive pricing in tablets as other models begin to hit the market.”
In Wired.com’s reviews, we ranked the iPad 2 at the top, scoring a 9 out of 10, while the Xoom came in at a 6.
As for the Atrix, the recent price drop of two competitive phones to $50 — Apple’s iPhone 3GS and HTC’s Inspire 4G with an Amazon deal — may account for Atrix sales coming in “well below forecast,” according to Faucette.
The Atrix has also taken flak for the high prices of its heavily hyped peripheral products. The laptop dock, which allows the phone to be converted into a portable notebook-like device, costs a cool $500. And the HD multimedia device that lets you attach the phone to an external HD monitor, essentially turning the Atrix into a PC, costs another $190. While the bells and whistles of the two accompanying devices made the Atrix stand out from competing smartphone debuts, the price points brought less-flattering attention.
However, as a phone, the Atrix is superb, Wired.com’s reviewer found.
While Motorola may have priced the Atrix’s accessories out of reach, it may be doing the right thing by thinking outside the mobile-market box.
“As the devices become more and more alike, manufacturers will do anything they can to differentiate themselves,” Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney told Wired.com in an interview.
That may include hardware peripherals like those found with the Atrix, or it could include tweaks in the Android user interface — as evidenced in Motorola’s Motoblur UI, or HTC’s Sense — though not all users prefer the UIs (or skins) created by the manufacturers.
With the release of multiple, relatively lower-cost tablets to come later in 2011, we’ll see if Motorola’s plans will change.
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