Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Motorola May Have A Future After All

Meet XOOM, Motorola's 10" tablet running Google-sanctioned Android, Honeycomb, on Nvidia's Tegra 2. And boy, this is the tablet that Samsung should have delivered for the Tab but jumped the gun on.



Here are some of the promo videos that I have managed to track down from the Web.

Aside from the pictures, videos, and specs, we don't know a lot about the user experience that it'll deliver. And I think Google will need to share more of those details. But I have to say Google has once again outdone itself.



The graphics I see are amazing and using a dual-core CPU doesn't disappoint. And let's just say this. The battery life is amazing, 10 hours of video playback. As far as I know, this even ties the iPad in battery life, albeit, last year's iPad.

Here are some questions that I like answered however.

  1. How is the ZOOM different from other Tegra 2 and Honeycomb tablets?  They all appear to have to same specs.
  2. Will this be stock Android or will Verizon Wireless, the exclusive carrier for the XOOM, think it can do better by "coloring" it with a skin and apps that we don't need or want?  This was a reference tablet of sort (though not called the Nexus tablet) when Google demo'd Android 3 back in December.
  3. How is the app market?  Will we see an iPad-like translation in apps between the iPhone version and the iPad version?
  4. The XOOM will initially come in a 3G version but will be upgradable to LTE.  Will this cost more?
Anyway, this is the Android tablet to get.  Well, we'll need to know what the prices are but from what I can, it's a good start for now.



Engadget has a nice little table with the specs for the ZOOM.  I encourage you to head over and check it out.  It looks like there will be only one version initially.  Listed is only a 32GB version.  I have a 32GB iPad model.  I would have like to see a 64GB version.  Trust me.  Apps for tablets take up a heck of lot more space than phone apps.

I think this not only sends a message to Apple, but also for RIM, Samsung, and everyone else competing in this market.  I also love to see what HTC has in store.  God, I love competition!

More at Engadget.

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