XOOM Screeches To Halt By July: Uncertainty Looms, Successor Planned [RUMOR]
All parties involved with the Motorola XOOM have been hush hush regarding actual volume but rumors from Digitimes shed light on some (alleged) interesting happenings behind the scenes. According to the publication’s inside supplier sources, Motorola has mostly met forecasts.
Taiwan’s shipments of Motorola Xoom in the first quarter of 2011 are expected to meet upstream component suppliers’ forecast of 700,000-800,000 units, as Motorola already placed orders for about 200,000 units for the first half of March and shipments for the entire March should reach 400,000-500,000.
While total shipments of the XOOM could reach 3.5 million in 2011, Motorola’s first Android tablet may have already peaked. Those same sources claim planned XOOM production will be cut each month and totally terminated by the end of June 2011.
Yes… a screeching halt. Two logical possibilities have been cited:
- Uncertainty in the tablet market with the iPad 2 amongst other newly announced Android 3.0 tablets
- Motorola could be planning to phase out the XOOM to make way for the XOOM 2 (or other aptly named successor)
If Motorola sells 3.5 million units it wouldn’t exactly be a blockbuster hit but I think that’s a solid showing, especially if the lowered production is to make way for Round 2. I personally purchased the XOOM and am loving it so far. It’s not perfect by any means but it’s already getting much more use than I thought it might.