Xoom is supposed to be the flagship effort to tabletize Android, Android 3.0 or Honeycomb. And by all accounts, Motorola has done a fantastic job with the hardware. As for software, that's Google's department. And with any version one (or version two or version three...) of anything from Google, you're in beta territory.
Still, the review for Xoom, despite Google's unfinished version of Honeycomb, has been positive, much more so than those for RIM's Playbook. And Xoom hasn't done too badly in the marketplace despite limited distribution.
However, Motorola cannot be too happy with Google today. Why? Instead of going out Xooms at its Android conference today, it gave out Samsung's tablets. And not to the 7" Galaxy Tab that has been on the market but an unreleased 10-inch tablet!
Xoom suddenly became yesterday's news as Google embraces its newest bestest friend, Samsung. And why not? Samsung, by valuation, is the biggest multi-national company with a deep pocket to help Google in its march towards mobile dominance. HTC, the first company to come out with an Android device, still doesn't have anything that can compete with the iPad. Again, Xoom has done well.
Still, regardless of Motorola and HTC's best effort, it's nothing like the 3 million+ preorders (worldwide, shipping and not sold) for Samsung's next Android device, the Galaxy S II. The Galaxy brand has the potential to rival the iPhone in name. Certainly has in South Korea, Samsung's home court.
So Google embracing Samsung's tablet as the best hope against the iPad make a lot of sense. Nevertheless, Motorola execs are probably fuming right about now. It's no wonder they are working on their own OS.
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