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Amazon.com, Best Buy, RadioShack, Sam’s Club, Walmart, Staples, and Costco. What do all seven of these retail chains have in common? They will be the places to be come March 27th for the launch of the Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi only version of the world’s first Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet will go on sale for the expected $599.99 price tag, according to a press release issued today by Motorola.
With 32GB of on-board storage, the price matches up competitively with the recently released iPad 2 and should give Android users not willing to purchase the 3G version through Verizon the viable alternative they have been waiting for. The vital stats remain the same minus a cellular radio, meaning you get the same Tegra 2-powered Honeycomb experience that is redefining Android for tablets.
March 27th is less than two weeks away, so the wait won’t be much longer. Crack open those piggy banks and get to counting your pennies now.
Motorola Mobility Brings MOTOROLA XOOM™ Wi-Fi To United States
Innovative new tablet experience to be available from more than seven leading retailers nationwide
LIBERTYVILLE, Ill., March 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ – Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (MMI: 23.46 0.00 0.00%), today announced the upcoming availability of MOTOROLA XOOM™ Wi-Fi edition from leading retailers across the United States starting March 27. Amazon.com, Best Buy, Costco, RadioShack, Sam’s Club (select locations), Staples and Walmart will be offering the 10.1-inch widescreen HD tablet with Android™ 3.0 (Honeycomb) through both online and retail store channels. The MSRP for MOTOROLA XOOM Wi-Fi with 32 GB of memory will be $599.
“MOTOROLA XOOM is a truly innovative tablet – its design, coupled with being the first tablet to have Android 3.0, results in a user experience that is one-of-a-kind,” said Dan Papalia, vice president of retail sales for Motorola Mobility. “We are now continuing to expand the choices available to consumers with the MOTOROLA XOOM Wi-Fi to be available soon from numerous leading retailers in the United States.”
In addition, the MOTOROLA XOOM Wi-Fi will be available to commercial IT channels and regional retailers through a distribution agreement with Synnex Corporation, and regional carriers through Brightpoint, Inc.
MOTOROLA XOOM showcases the innovations of the Honeycomb user experience – including widgets, true multi-tasking, browsing, notifications and customization – on a 10.1-inch widescreen HD display, enabling video content that’s richer and clearer than ever before. With a 1GHz dual-core processor and 1 GB of RAM, MOTOROLA XOOM delivers exceptionally fast web-browsing performance. The latest Google Mobile services include Google Maps 5.0™ with 3D interaction and access to more than 3 million Google eBooks and apps from Android Market™. MOTOROLA XOOM also supports a Beta of Adobe® Flash® Player 10.2 downloadable from Android Market, enabling the delivery of rich Flash based web content including videos, casual games and rich Internet applications.
As the first device running Android 3.0, MOTOROLA XOOM benefits from our aggressive work with developers across the ecosystem through MOTODEV, Motorola’s developer support program to enable world-class tablet and smartphone experiences. These devices will be able to access more than 150,000 applications within the Android Market as well as the rapidly increasing number of applications optimized directly for the Android 3.0 OS. In addition, thousands of Flash-based web applications and sites will become available for the MOTOROLA XOOM.
As a part of the company’s commitment and leadership — along with Google’s — to the Android ecosystem, Motorola announced a series of global developer events in 11 cities across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. These MOTODEV events give developers access to tools, support and Motorola’s team of Android experts. The first of these events was hosted in San Francisco on March 1 and had more than 665 developers in attendance.
MOTODEV also recently announced a new testing and certification program for Honeycomb applications, encouraging developers to submit their applications to get early feedback and support on MOTOROLA XOOM performance. This is a part of the company’s ongoing commitment to supporting the ecosystem in delivering high quality experiences to the consumer.
More information about MOTODEV tools, resources and events can be found at http://developer.motorola.com.
About Motorola Mobility
Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (MMI: 23.46 0.00 0.00%) fuses innovative technology with human insights to create experiences that simplify, connect and enrich people’s lives. Our portfolio includes converged mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets; wireless accessories; end-to-end video and data delivery; and management solutions, including set-tops and data-access devices. For more information, visit motorola.com/mobility.
MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered trademarks of Motorola Trademark Holdings, LLC. Android, Google, Google Mobile and Google Maps are trademarks of Google Inc. All other product and service names are the property of their respective owners. © 2011 Motorola Mobility, Inc.
For $600 I’ll buy me a laptop.
Yea, right now android just can’t do enough till they can bring in some quality video streaming services. Phones can get by without it but when Ipad has great options like streaming ABC, Cartoon network, Netflix and hulu just to name a few I just don’t see buying an android tablet as a good idea for my needs. I am sure there are a large amount like me that would want quality video streaming on something with a 10 inch screen currently there is nothing that the Xoom can do over my nook color that would justify laying down that kind of money on.
@mike Good summation
It pains me to see all these comments from people who haven’t used it. Its simply fun to use. When I get back on my PC, I feel like I’ve stepped back in time to the 90’s after using the Xoom.
Sure there aren’t apps for it. Sure there are some missing features that will be rectified in time, but its still just an awesome toy to use.
I’ve started using all my corporate webapps over the Xoom from my couch. Last night my wife used it to dictate patient records into her hospital’s patient record system using voice to text. She likes it more than I do!
When will the galaxy tab 10.1 be out? !
@Tad-
Which app did your wife use for voice to text, Voice Actions?
I am with tad on this one….honeycomb makes this tablet. I was going to purchase the 3g/4g model but I can not justify that when I have wireless tethering on my phone and you can tap into wifi pretty much anywhere. I will purchase on the 27th!
@dave, voice to text has been native since 2.1 I believe.
Too much. Too late.
I will be purchasing on the 27th also…any big name retailer that is accepting pre-orders yet?
Already pre-ordered :)
@dave: Her system is a web application, so its basically just a website with a textbox entry field. She hit the microphone icon on the keyboard and did a sentence at a time.
I’ll be getting one!
I’m goin to buy one from best buy on the 27th!
After reading anandtech review, I am leaning towards iPad2. No compelling reason to buy Xoom and price makes it even harder to buy Xoom..
@Mike all great points, and android will develop this in time and for an open platform device im willing to wait. On that not my Birthday is 3/30 and I WILL be treating myself this year especially since my tax return has hit my acct.
@mike
Try T Shows Stream (lite).
Ts not a live stream but still,you get loads of tv series in it and the quality of streaming is great on 3g almost as good as on wifi.
im sending my 3g version back and getting the wifi only ($100 back baby!!).
Funny thing is, if they had LAUNCHED with the wifi version at 599 I would already have one, but since they waited a whole fucking month, I’m holding out to see the competing Samsung unit. Or who knows, I might just get an ipad2 instead since Honeycomb has proved to be rough-around-the-edges to say the least.
I’ll be waiting for the 2nd or 3rd gen 10″ Android tabs. Just from history I have learned to never get first gen and 2nd gen is often not the best idea either.
My Laptop is showing it’s age and I’m torn between getting a new one fairly soon or waiting another several months for next gen tabs. Just look at Android phones. The ones you get today are way better and cheaper than the ones you got a year or two ago.
To late, I’ve had to much time to think about the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Should have released the wifi only version first instead of letting Verizon feed off of your most interested customers.
I may still go with the xoom, but not until I get some more info on the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Maybe Motorola will get lucky and Samsung will make the same mistake of not releasing the wifi only version first.
Still, since tablet’s necessity is still in question and if you just want your geek fix cheaply, there’s and ipad for 350, and you get 65,000 more tablet optimized apps (makes a huge difference) last I saw honeycomb had 16 tablet apps and even those looked just quickly done without even larger fonts. Saving 250 dollars for a slightly slower tablet that will cost you one extra minute after a month of “slower” loading is a deal. Not to mention I doubt that dual core processor is even being optimized to it’s full potential as of now, maybe next year when the new round of models come out android will be worth it. Right now though it’s light years behind, just like the app comparisons of blackberry vs android make the blackberry app store look pathetic, the same thing is happening here just that the device costs 400 more dollars.
ZOMG, I hope they don’t delay the Thunderbolt’s release again on account of this. Otherwise, looks this thing looks good.
I would really like to have one of these, I just really think if they want market share and my money it’s got to be cheaper than the ipad 2 wifi, or at least the same price….
Sold! I’ll picking picking on at Best Buy or Sam’s Club.
I am going to play it safe and buy mine at Sam’s so that I can use their “no questions asked” return policy if the following things do not happen within a reasonable time:
1. A Netflix App is released and working on the Xoom
2. The MicroSDHC slot is activated
3. Flash Support is fully functional
I vote with my dollars, and Xoom/Android will get my provisional ballots on the 27th, but I will not hesitate to take it right back to Sam’s if these three items are not resolved. Meanwhile my wifes ipad2 will arrive here shortly and although I loath all things apple I will give it a serious look.
$599.. why would I buy that when I could get a fresh made burrito for a mere 7.99?!!? Comparing a tablet to laptop makes about as much sense. Quit grandstanding and acting all righteous and offended by comparing two devices meant for doing different things.
Video streaming services are holding you back? Well what about those of us that want to put downloaded video on the tablet to watch it? Good luck trying to do that with an iPad! They only allow you to consume media the way they have decided. With a XOOM you can just grab some DIVX or XVid encoded video, etc, and push it over with USB, and then watch it right away (you can use RockPlayer if XOOM doesn’t support your format natively). THAT’s freedom. Freedom to consume media the way > I < want to, not how a company dictates.
-Brad
Waiting for the first A-hole to rebut my argument with “I can do that if I jailbreak” in 3….2….1….
-Brad
I think them being late to market with the wifi only version really hurt the xooms chances to grab market share. I was ready to buy one but never got a release date so instead picked up the 32 gb wifi iPad 2. Sorry, android.
@Mike: Just hafta say this:
iPad may Netflix and iTunes store, if your into that, but I think most of the world will deny, but are bigger fans of MegaVideo/Projectfree.Tv/PirateBay. And, that my friend, is somthing Android does very well then the iPad will never do.
Xoom haters crack me up! Had mine 2 weeks, and its sweet jesus.
Len: nobody cares about warez or porn anymore.
Well, $599 is a heck of a lot better than $899 or $799. It is still a little more expensive than the iPad 2, but it’s also better in a lot of ways than the iPad2. I think the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 will be priced more in line with the iPad 2. But considering what extra features you get with the Xoom compared to the Galaxy 10.1, or the iPad 2, it’s worth the extra $100.
Android Honeycomb is still in its infancy, but there are far more than 100 apps available for Android tablets. That was just one lie Steve Jobs made, among many more, during his keynote. Android has thousands and thousands of apps that play nicely on tablets. With Android you don’t have completely rewrite an app to make it fit on a bigger screen. You just change the screen settings in the development app, or it resizes automatically. There might be some more white space, but big deal.
The iPad 2 is still just a consumer toy, while Android tablets I can see becoming actual productive tools.
anyone know if the bootloader is unlocked on the wifi edition too?
Unfortunately these will not sell and here’s why. I went to best buy yesterday and asked where the Xoom was because I couldn’t find it by the galaxy tab or the ipad. The looked at me and thought for a couple seconds and after I said the Motorola Xoom he’s like oh yeah they are in the back corner by the netbooks. I went over there and it was still very hard to find.
The ipad2 was on this big display no way you could miss it.
Why hasn’t Motorola done more to promote these in store? These have no chance of selling themselves without good marketing.
I really wish Moto had produces a 16gb (and even 8gb) version for marketing reasons alone. (And as it has an SD card, the internal isn’t as important) All this comparing the iPad 16gb to a 32gb superior hardware’ed device is just stupid.
Very competitive pricing am getting one. Ipad 2 32gb + HDMI port adopter = $599+40=639 > zoom.
Went to Best Buy this weekend expecting to get a feel of the Xoom so I’d know what to expect on the 27th. Made a MAJOR mistake… I checked out the iPad2. I’m sorry guys but the iPad 2 is head and shoulders above the Xoom. In just the 10 minutes or so that I used the Xoom it felt unfinished or maybe just unrefined. I don’t really know how best to describe the feeling, it just didn’t feel “right” especially after playing with the ipad2.
I’d never give up my Android phones for an iphone but playing with the ipad2 has definitely made it where I just wouldn’t be satisfied with a Xoom. Hopefully the Gtab 10.1 or another Android tablet sways be back but unfortunately I’m currently leaning towards handing my money over to Jobsy.
@sirrx7- don’t have doubts. I thought same as you until I played with a xoom and an iPad and am completely satisfied with my iPad 2. It is such an amazing device.
Thos people chossing iPad2 over Xoom are just stupid. Xoom is better even if it made by US company. Compare crApple iPad2 which is very crap and Xoom which is just plain crap I choose the plain crap. Once Samsung has finished refining the Galaxy Tab then there is no question to which is better…the Galaxy Tab will shit on both, it will shit on iPad2 more thats all. Go Android!
@ android fan- Homie, hardware means nothing at this point since all these tablets are comparable spec wise. It’s all about the software and app support. Last I checked, the tab will also be running 3.0. In my opinion I feel iOS is better, not by a lot, but better than android 3.0 and then when you see how diverse the app store is compared to the android tablet market I think there is no question the iPad is the better choice right now. I love android and use a galaxy S but I think it’s at least fair to say that the iPad is not “very crap”.
@Android Fan, thank you for your educated intelligent post. Can you now tell me what exactly makes an iPad2 crap compared to the Xoom? err I’m sorry, “very crap” compared to “plain crap”?
Its easy for a fanboy of either camp to just knock the other product without knowing jack about either. Tell us what you know so that we too can be as educated as you.
As I earlier stated, I’m hoping the Galaxy Tab 10.1 can bring me back where I belong but at this point in time and in my opinion the iPad 2 just feels more refined and finished.
Hopefully Samsung can somehow optimize Honeycomb so that its smoother than the current offering. IOS on the iPod2 is just so fluid.
Just got done running back and forth through best buy for like an hour and a half trying to figure out if i should buy apple again. if u own anything from apple (ipod touch or iphone) i would not buy the ipad. it can do almost nothing those devices cant. get the xoom if u want a different feel. but if u cant deal with not alot of apps or a slightly buggy interface but u have to have a tablet get an ipad. i would think about getting an android phone if i didnt invest like a billion dollars in the app store. just my 2 cents.
o and i did buy the xoom. im a balla so i paid full price.
No doubt the apps and refinement will come just as the G1 just had a few apps and look at it now. I am counting Android to provide a long term to provide a more option rich experience enhancing Android with new options, while IOS either debates why they won’t do it, or looks for ways to charge their customers for what Google provides for free. However with that said, Motorola screwed up the launch, so I am now going to wait to see how some other Android tablets are going to come out.
iPad 2 is crap because it controlled by crApple and copies Samsung interface. Motorola is crap because it bulky, drain bettery and plasticy…but it still better than iPad2 because it based on Android 3.0 and has been refined because Google work closely with Moto to design the Xoom.
Samsung is much better because it has the UI layer separated from Android so the UI can crash without bring down the whole OS. You look at all crApple products and it easy to see that they are copied from Samsung look and feel and HTC raw material.
HTC and Samsung are mvoing too fast for crApple to keep up because they have years of experience and innovative track record in mobile industry.
Sorry guys.you got trolley.”android fan” is an Apple fan boy using a common tactic of looking like a retard while talking for the other side to make the whole group look bad. See the southpark episode with the kkk and the flag for details.
$589.99 at Costco + free gel case
how about a 15″ tablet. that would be sweet.
I don’t watch lol stuff and I not a fanboy. Android rules…see all my post and it show that I have been follower and supporter of android from day one.