Wi-Fi-Only Motorola Xoom To Hit Stores March 27

Re:Wi-Fi-Only Motorola Xoom To Hit Stores March 27 by ekidd on Wednesday March 16, 2011 @03:42PM (#2333546)

We need cheaper Android Honeycomb tablets: Something equivalent to the WiFi-only Xoom for $499, and lower-end devices in the $250–350 range.

Don't get me wrong, I really like my Xoom, and it's a fun device to hack on. But Android has historically thrived on two things: "Good enough" devices, and a huge range of form factors and price points. And we're just not there yet.

I suppose I'll have to wait a couple of months until the deluge starts. :-)

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Re:Wi-Fi-Only Motorola Xoom To Hit Stores March 27 by TomOfTTB on Wednesday March 16, 2011 @04:14PM (#2333681)

I don't think there's much that can be done with this. I spent a week with a Xoom and while it isn't slow it isn't lightening fast either. So you can't really cut any of the hardware specs.

The cheap Android tablets that came out before saved money by putting a sub-par touch screen on. But last I checked Google was insisting on Multi-Touch ability for Honeycomb tablets. So there's no way to go cheap on the screen.

So I don't see where Android tablet manufacturers could cut from. As it is Apple's ability to buy in bulk and manufacture their own chips gives them a huge cost advantage.

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