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  (Source: Gearlog.com)
Analyst says Honeycomb too complicated and buggy for mass public

While reports of Apple's iPad 2 sales estimated the company possibly moved around one million tablets in its launch weekend, its competitors -- namely the Motorola Xoom -- are not faring so well. 

EWeek reports that sales of the Xoom, which launched late last month, have been underwhelming. According to Jefferies and Co. analyst Peter Misek, Motorola may have to reduce production of the device if it hasn't already done so.

"We believe the device has been a bit buggy and did not meet the magic price point of $500," Misek told eWeek. "We believe management knows this and is hurrying development and production of lower cost tablets. Importantly we believe management will likely have to make the painful decision to accept little to no margin initially in order to match iPad 2's wholesale pricing."

The Android 3.0-powered Xoom was well received among reviewers, though many noted its bugginess and high price. But according to Global Equities analyst Trip Chowdry, these downsides, coupled with Honeycomb's overall poor usability and the tablet's inconsistent, poor battery life, are hampering Xoom sales.

Chowdry called Honeycomb, Google's tablet-optimized version of the Android mobile OS, "extremely complicated and confusing," implying that it would struggle to gain mass adoption. Chowdry says that Google's beta strategy worked fine on free products like Gmail and Google Maps, but simply does not cut it on a product that consumers have shelled out $800 for.

"Apple has set the perfection bar too high for Google to achieve and has also raised the expectations from the customers too on what to expect from the software," Chowdry said, adding that Google might have blown its opportunity to make a good impression with tablets.

Regardless, 2011 is poised to become the year scores of tablets flood the market, like the forthcoming PlayBook tablet from BlackBerry manufacturer RIM. An announcement on the PlayBook's availability is imminent.

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Price
By B3an on 3/15/2011 8:28:18 AM , Rating: 5
While the price of this is pretty high, getting it down to $500 would be very hard for Motorola.
Apple probably makes little profit on the iPad 2 at it's price point, but thats perfectly fine for them, because what people forget is that they make a big profit from app purchases so it pays off.
Motorola obviously do not have there own massively popular app store, so if they lowered the price it would really take a toll on the company.
Apple have a massive advantage here over any other competitor in this space because of this. It's hard to imagine how others could compete.




RE: Price
By Aloonatic on 3/15/2011 8:35:25 AM , Rating: 2
I think you're right, on the price front. Too much, it needs to be cheaper than the iPad for most consumers to bother even looking.

I guess they have an up hill battle. Probably akin to a company trying to take on Sony and MS in the games console market by using an OS that they didn't control and more importantly couldn't demand money from games makers who wanted to make games to pay for it. Meaning that the consumer had to pay for the hardware up front, rather than it being a loss leader, knowing that they'll make it back on peripherals and games. Probably not quite to the extent of the console market though.


RE: Price
By StevoLincolnite on 3/15/2011 8:57:01 AM , Rating: 2
I reckon' if they ditched the Dual-Core CPU, halved the amount of storage to 16gb, cut the USB/Bluetooth/HDMI connectivity, removed the Cameras and all the other funky sensors they could hit a stupidly low price point which might entice parents to grab one for the kids.

You could then still do note taking, listen to music, play some movies and browse the web fine, just not all at once.


RE: Price
By Mitch101 on 3/15/2011 9:44:02 AM , Rating: 2
Move Over, Apple! My Tablet Cost $200
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527487036...

I still believe the device is overpriced as does the Wall Street Journal with an interesting suggestion that Barnes and Noble should open full Android on the Nook Color and challenge the iPad.


RE: Price
By theapparition on 3/15/2011 10:32:00 AM , Rating: 3
Nook Color is amazing for $200.

But an iPad2 competitor it is not. I have one, and it can do some pretty cool things for the price point, but having to use things like softkeys and using hacks to get some functionality working right is in no way consumer friendly.

Not to mention how much better my Xoom is. That's a tablet done right.


RE: Price
By Samus on 3/15/2011 11:27:38 AM , Rating: 3
I guess it isn't Xooming off the shelves...

I have a $250 Nook Color running 2.2, great tablet for me personally. I prefer the size over the larger tablets.


RE: Price
By Aloonatic on 3/15/2011 10:03:40 AM , Rating: 2
I see what you mean, but then you're not really comparing like for like. Same goes for those who want to root (and invalidate their warranty) on Nooks, or buy a Galaxy tab.

Those devices might suit the market that you suggest though, but that might not get the the iPad sales figures. I agree that they would be great for kids though. It boggles my mind when I see kids being given tech that sots so much, when they may well break it in no time at all.

The problem that other [non Apple] manufacturers have is that they need to make their iPad challenging tablets so that it's a not like for like comparison, but in their favour, in order to just get noticed.

If someone could just get an Android tablet that is similar in size/weight/battery life to the iPad, but with USB and HDMI, at (at the very most) the same price, then they might stand a chance, but they will still probably need to make it cheaper to get any traction.


RE: Price
By satveeraj on 3/15/2011 2:41:54 PM , Rating: 3
Cut the dual-core CPU out and Honeycomb will run exactly like honey...........slow and sticky.

A major issue with Google is their lack of hardware optimization with their OS. Poor battery life -> Get a larger battery. Slower experience -> Get Dual Cores.


RE: Price
By SkullOne on 3/15/2011 8:43:01 AM , Rating: 2
Yep. Motorola priced themselves right out of the market. Xoom sales being "underwhelming" is not a surprise at all. Motorola tried to throw every bit of hardware it could into the Xoom and then used Honeycomb which just isn't complete yet.

They shouldn't have tried to beat iPad 2 to the market. They should have waited. Worked out the kinks in Honeycomb, optimized for the hardware, and offered a price that was very competitive. If they had done that the Xoom still wouldn't be an iPad 2 type seller but I think it would have done rather well.


RE: Price
By Da W on 3/15/2011 9:35:06 AM , Rating: 2
Microsoft is being criticized for this strategy


RE: Price
By SkullOne on 3/15/2011 12:38:32 PM , Rating: 3
MS is being criticized for that strategy because they are coming 2 years late to the market with WP7. Now they can't even get a patch out to WP7 correctly.

Google didn't have to wait 2 years. It could have been 2 months. That's totally acceptable if the device functions 100% correctly which it currently does not with the broken SDCard and lack of Flash.

Don't get me wrong. I love Android far more then the iOS crap. But Motorola and Google dropped the ball on this one.


RE: Price
By mcnabney on 3/15/2011 9:42:48 AM , Rating: 1
Honeycomb is fine. Even as it is at 3.0 it is superior to the iPad 1/2. My mother-in-law gets 8-12 hours on a charge, so I don't understand what the battery complaints are about.

And the talk about selling these things at a loss is BS. iSupply pegged the cost to make the original iPad well under $300 for the basic model with superior models having even fatter margins. Xoom shouldn't be any higher since they used a MUCH cheaper TN screen instead of am IPS screen like Apple chose. Motorola is probably making at almost $500 per tablet since Verizon is underwriting part of the cost with a contract. They priced it far too high.


RE: Price
By SkullOne on 3/15/2011 12:35:28 PM , Rating: 3
Honeycomb is not fine. No SDCard ability. No Flash out of the box. The new OTA doesn't even fix the SDCard problem.

Honeycomb was rushed plain and simple. The core of the OS is solid but the OS as a whole isn't complete.


RE: Price
By Johnmcl7 on 3/15/2011 12:48:33 PM , Rating: 1
Then by that logic the Ipad series will never be fine given they don't have SD (and likely never will do) nor Flash capability.

John


RE: Price
By kmmatney on 3/15/2011 1:04:47 PM , Rating: 2
There are a few options for using an SD Card with an iPad. Here is one of them:

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/12/14/the-chinese-3...


RE: Price
By bplewis24 on 3/15/2011 1:27:25 PM , Rating: 2
Dude, Honeycomb has nothing to do with the SD card. That's a hardware issue.

Other Honeycomb tablets will enter the market later this year with SD cards.

Brandon


RE: Price
By theapparition on 3/15/2011 3:15:42 PM , Rating: 2
And like to add that, as usual, lack of flash support is Adobe's fault. Not Googles nor Motorola's.


RE: Price
By name99 on 3/15/2011 3:28:32 PM , Rating: 2
Of course it IS Google's & Motorola's fault for hitching their wagon to a company that has shown, for over ten years, that it is incapable of making Flash operate effectively.

Four years ago, when iPhone first came out, we were told, "No, there'll be a really really cool Flash for mobile any day now, just wait". Four years on, and we're still waiting. But I'm sure Flash will be just great in 2020.


RE: Price
By Alexstarfire on 3/15/2011 5:41:45 PM , Rating: 2
It is there fault, but not because of that. They wanted 10.2, or so I've read, and it's simply not out yet. 10.1 works just fine on my Captivate, no crashes and no loss of battery life. Of course I also only show Flash when I need it.


RE: Price
By Shadowmaster625 on 3/15/2011 8:43:12 AM , Rating: 2
Apple has successfully leveraged the power of the yuppie. They have inexhaustible amounts of money to spend on $10 gimmick apps.


RE: Price
By banvetor on 3/15/2011 9:03:04 AM , Rating: 1
I have one quick solution to this:

Make Google give some percentage of its profit on the appstore to the tablet manufacturer. I'm not sure on the price division on Google's store (if I remember correctly, Apple is 50/50), but something like 10% to the device manufacturer, 20% for itself and 70% to the developer would make for an interesting proposition to the likes of Motorola, Samsung, etc...


RE: Price
By mcnabney on 3/15/2011 9:35:48 AM , Rating: 2
Apple is 70/30 with the developer getting 70.


RE: Price
By Shadowself on 3/15/2011 9:39:35 AM , Rating: 2
Apple's revenue structure is 70/30 (Developer/Apple) of the price of the app plus a developer/registration fee.


RE: Price
By Wagnbat on 3/15/2011 9:04:35 AM , Rating: 2
Agreed on price point, but look at Sony and the PS2 vs PS3. Marketshare. The same can be said of Android. Free OS, and Google's raking in millions.

It's all about strategy and I think Motorola just expected to flop their "Full House" of ace hardware on the table and take their share of the pot. Obviously, it's not working.


RE: Price
By melgross on 3/15/2011 9:18:20 AM , Rating: 2
Apple makes their profits from hardware sales. They make almost no profit from app and music sales. The reason why they can make a decent profit from the iPad is twofold. The first is that their tremendous buying power gets them locked in pricing for parts that are also lower because of the quantity. This follows throughout the entire supply chain and extends to shipping.

The second is that unlike other manufacturers, Apple has a large percentage of sales come from their websites and stores, where they enjoy larger margins. That enables them to lower prices overall.

Motorola, Samsung and others can't do this.


RE: Price
By Aikouka on 3/15/2011 9:28:27 AM , Rating: 1
The iPad has to be making Apple a decent amount of money for it to be worth 17.2% of their Q1 revenue.

Source:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4205/the-macbook-pro...

I'd also assume that iPad sales were artificially low during the reporting period from people holding out for the newer iPad 2. Q2 will likely show a stronger iPad device and Q3 an even stronger iPhone given the expected refresh in the summer.


RE: Price
By Denigrate on 3/15/2011 10:23:41 AM , Rating: 4
When will the gen pop figure out that revenue ! = profit?


RE: Price
By B3an on 3/15/2011 2:04:18 PM , Rating: 2
That's the original iPad. I said the iPad 2. I doubt Apple would make that much on iPad 2 for now considering the hardware upgrades. They will certainly make more from app purchases being as they get 30% of the profits for each sale.


RE: Price
By Tony Swash on 3/15/2011 2:52:17 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
While the price of this is pretty high, getting it down to $500 would be very hard for Motorola.
Apple probably makes little profit on the iPad 2 at it's price point, but thats perfectly fine for them, because what people forget is that they make a big profit from app purchases so it pays off.
Motorola obviously do not have there own massively popular app store, so if they lowered the price it would really take a toll on the company.
Apple have a massive advantage here over any other competitor in this space because of this. It's hard to imagine how others could compete.


What a surprise - a poor knock-off that costs more than the thing is it trying to copy doesn't sell. People are not fools. If they want an iPad they will buy the real thing not the crappy and more expensive clone.

I think you are wrong about Apple's profits on the lowest priced iPad2. It's estimated that the iPad2 costs Apple about $323 to make. See here

http://modmyi.com/forums/ipad-news/754457-ipad-2-c...

Bear in mind that because of it's scale of production, common component strategy and low number of SKUs Apple can secure very favourable terms from suppliers - especially if it deploys its vast cash mountain to buy components long in advance. Apple has one of the most efficiently managed supply chains on the planet.

The way the tablet market is shaping up is very similar to the iPod and MP3 market. Apple can beat competitors on price and competitors cannot beat Apple on product design, marketing, value added stack and retail outlet system. The tablet market market is going to be much more like the mp3 player market than like the phone market (where carriers and their channels are so important) so we can expect Apple's total domination of the tablet market for the foreseeable future. It's competitors will fight it out for the much smaller second place - my bet is on RIMs playbook - and that will be lucky to get 10% of the market.


RE: Price
By Alexstarfire on 3/15/2011 5:44:31 PM , Rating: 3
TBH you make Apple sound like a monopoly that is very anti-competitive there.


RE: Price
By Ushio01 on 3/15/2011 3:13:10 PM , Rating: 2
Isuppli estimate the bill of materials for the ipad 2 at $325.

http://mobile-device.biz/content/item.php?item=295...

But the bigger issue is that no one else can leverage the part suppliers as much as Apple who probably ordered multimillion quantity's of each part in there initial order compared to what 10's of thousands at best for anyone else?

For the forseable future there will be good tablets at more than the ipad and inferior tablets at less.

Apple can even lower the price of the ipad if they wanted and still make money from the app store but what about the manufacturers of Android tablets? do they receive money from apps sold or do they only get paid for the hardware? At the moment only RIM and HP have any chance of offering similar performance and specs to the ipad while still remaining profitable.


RE: Price
By Azethoth on 3/15/2011 11:21:49 PM , Rating: 2
Added to the bill of materials is assembly (~$10) and transportation.

The rest of the cost is recouping R&D & Marketing. These last 2 become cheaper the larger the number of units sold.


RE: Price
By nikon133 on 3/15/2011 4:57:35 PM , Rating: 2
I am doubtful.

Asus Transformer, with pretty much exact specs as Xoom, is expected to hit market with $399 price tag.

It does have only 16GB storage, but it also has decent IPS screen, from what I could read.

I think that Motorola is just trying to milk situation of being 1st Honeycomb available on the market. Once early adopters fade away, they can reduce price to something more reasonable.

How much do parts in tablet cost anyway? Is that hardware really any more expensive than netbook hardware?


RE: Price
By KoolAidMan1 on 3/15/2011 7:10:33 PM , Rating: 2
Apple actually has very good profit margin on the iPad. How this happens is their massive volume orders from component suppliers. They can guarantee that they will ship huge numbers that nobody else can, so they can do something like guarantee orders on 30 million IPS panels or so much aluminum or this many batteries or whatever, and because they got it in such bulk it drives their BOM way below what other companies would have to pay.

This is a huge advantage that Apple has with their tablets right now. Buying flash memory in massive bulk years in advance is also how the iPod and iPhone have been so profitable for so long. If other companies want to compete with their hardware, they'll have to take a much deeper hit to their bottom line just to match, let alone beat, what Apple's mobile hardware costs. They aren't going to drive their costs down in terms of production volume because people aren't buying the devices, that's their big chicken-and-the-egg dilemma right now.


Not blown yet
By Shadowself on 3/15/2011 9:45:19 AM , Rating: 3
quote:
"Apple has set the perfection bar too high for Google to achieve and has also raised the expectations from the customers too on what to expect from the software," Chowdry said, adding that Google might have blown its opportunity to make a good impression with tablets.


First, Apple has NOT set the "perfection bar". If anyone actually believes the iPad2 is perfection, they are truly delusional.

Second, I don't believe Google (and their manufacturer partners) have blown it yet. True, Honeycomb is still too buggy for prime time, but the general public barely knows about tablets such as the Xoom. If the Xoom had as high a publicity profile as the iPad and still had the problems it does then, maybe, the impression would be irreversable. However, with so few of the general public knowing any of the details about the Xoom (let alone even knowing about it at all) it is impossible to have a bad impression. You just have no impression.

The battle isn't over yet.




RE: Not blown yet
By rikulus on 3/15/2011 9:58:27 AM , Rating: 2
I totally agree on both points. I think one huge issue Android manufacturers have to deal with, which Apple does not, is competition with each other. So no individual Android product will ever outsell the iPhone or iPad. But, worse yet (and this is the boat I am in), when a new iPad comes out, you know it is the best iPad that will be available for a full year. It's easier to decide whether to jump in or not. When you buy an Android device, you know there will probably be a better device in 3 months, definitely in 6 months. Didn't NVIDIA say they expect Tegra 3 devices in August?? I'll wait half a year for an improved Honeycomb device.

I just hope slow initial Xoom sales doesn't put a drag on Android tablet development overall, because I am interested in a tablet - and infinitely more interested in an Android tablet than an iPad.


RE: Not blown yet
By kilkennycat on 3/15/2011 12:01:21 PM , Rating: 2
Very true. nVidia has already received the first working silicon of "Kal El", the quad-core, x5-speed-graphics successor to the Tegra2. They expect to have this device in tablets by August. I suspect that the device "pin-out" is identical to that of Tegra2. So, by the time August comes, expect a Xoom "Plus" with a tweaked and bug-free version of Honeycomb and the new SoC. August is probably not enough time to do a physically re-designed/slimmed version of the Xoom.


RE: Not blown yet
By FITCamaro on 3/15/2011 12:38:35 PM , Rating: 2
Dunno about consumers not knowing about the Xoom. Seems like every commercial break here has an ad about it.


RE: Not blown yet
By Azethoth on 3/15/2011 11:36:19 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah the Xoom has mind share, unfortunately its the "meh, wait to see if the iPad2 is not cheaper AND better" kind of mind share. Meanwhile Apple has 1 year's worth of pent-up "I totally wanna buy the iPad2" mind share.


If Google Voice is any indication...
By bupkus on 3/15/2011 1:15:29 PM , Rating: 2
I have no experience with Android, but lately I've been messing with Google Voice and I gotta say that it seems way to complicated for what should be a very simple interface.

I don't think I'll be dropping Skype any time soon.

Maybe Google employs too many really smart people and expects everyone to understand their products as they do?




RE: If Google Voice is any indication...
By vision33r on 3/15/2011 4:23:05 PM , Rating: 4
The Xoom is like Windows desktop, Google made Honeycomb almost like a PC. It's powerful in the right hands but it's downright complicated to use and manage for the avg user.

It even has a little App launcher positioned like a Start Menu.

Great but takes more handy fingers to locate it and launch apps, task switching is quick but difficult to figure out and often the background app crashes.

Google nerds need to understand majority of the people out there aren't savvy nerds.


Very believable criticism
By bug77 on 3/15/2011 8:40:58 AM , Rating: 4
He got just one thing wrong: it is running Honeycomb, not Gingerbread.

IMHO, the reason these tablets fail is because they come from phone manufacturers while actually being mobile computers. Who buys a computers when you have to be the manufacturer for an OS upgrade? Why do I need a "plan" to even afford one?




Honeycomb not Gingerbread
By PontifexMaximus on 3/15/2011 9:03:40 AM , Rating: 2
I'm confused by this article. I'm quite certain Xoom is running Google's Android 3.0 tablet OS "Honeycomb". What's all this talk about Gingerbread?

I think the only current device running Gingerbread is the Nexus S. The Nexus One can might also be able to run it. I'm speaking strictly of official non-rooted releases.




By PontifexMaximus on 3/15/2011 9:16:20 AM , Rating: 2
Lol. Article was changed to reflect Honeycomb as I typed my comment.
http://public.sn2.livefilestore.com/y1pPknyx5v145d...


By seraphim1982 on 3/15/2011 11:07:59 AM , Rating: 4
I know very well that the ASUS EEEPAD Transformer aka TF101 will be a quality tablet, made by a quality manufacturer. The price point, which I'm sure you'll find floating around the web is almost half of the IPAD2 and XOOM.

Android 3.0 is "somewhat" buggy, but it also the implementation of the software on the hardware. Motorola, somewhat got screwed by Google in a sense, as Google didn't get them Android 3.0 aka Honeycomb betas early enough for them to optimize it for the hardware. Because Motorola didn't want to waste 1 month exclusive on Android 3.0, they made a BAD decision and released it without getting all the kinks out. I know a lot of the vendors that didn't have the exclusive are still testing their tablet and ensuring that a lot of the kinks are out before mass release... probably something Motorola should have thought of....




By vision33r on 3/15/2011 2:45:33 PM , Rating: 2
The Motorola Xoom is buggy, let's face it. The only people who is ok with a tablet that crashes app this often are Android fanboys that are ok with crashes, it's a reoccurring thing on Android devices.

The iPad you may have an app crash if you jailbreak it or doing something dumb but I've had less crashes on it in a whole year than a full day with the Droid X.

A total of only 16 apps for Honeycomb while the iPad launched it had atleast 50+ on day 1, running without crashes. Not to mention 4 Apple in-house apps, Netflix a week later, and Hulu Plus.

Until Google learns how to build solid code and assist their partners, the tablet space will only exist cheap Android tabs and iPad mainstream.




By Alexstarfire on 3/15/2011 5:59:47 PM , Rating: 2
Weird, only time I've had things crash is when I open an app after I used a task killer on it. A little annoying because I have to wait for the crash to finish, but considering I wanted it actually closed to begin with it's not that big a deal. I don't even use a task killer that much.

Other than that the only time things crash is when I used a custom ROM, but I don't think most people expect perfection out of those right off the bat.


Stop!
By cochy on 3/15/2011 9:42:14 AM , Rating: 3
Stop releasing beta hardware/software! For all the money these execs make you wonder if they ever went to school.

Consumers won't stand for it. They are only digging themselves into a bigger hole while Apple moves up the mountain higher.




By invidious on 3/15/2011 11:45:09 AM , Rating: 3
The Xoom's main problem is that they only launched with 3G ball and chain version. The 3G plan is instanely expensive and on top of that the 3G device actually costs MORE than the wifi version. FAIL all over the place. For the pain of having a $1200 two year data plan the device itself should be free.

The demographic for tablets its tech savy people, these people already have smartphones, they don't need or want another 3G contract. Stupid people with money to throw around are buying iPads, its too late for Xoom to get a piece of that pie. I am sure it was a marketing choice to delay the wifi version so that they could at least get a few suckers to sign up for 3G contracts, but it looks like its turning out to be a bad move.

They need to hurry up and release the WIFI version already and match the ipad2 price so smart people can start buying them and the trend can catch on.




By Arsynic on 3/15/2011 1:53:49 PM , Rating: 3
Motorola must have caught a brief bout of the Playstation Syndrome where they believed they were so superior and their following so great that price doesn't matter.




Multiple problems.
By Guspaz on 3/15/2011 12:01:22 PM , Rating: 2
There were many factors contributing to the Xoom's poor response. It was overpriced compared to what consumers were willing to pay, it was rushed with promising but incomplete and buggy software, it featured a bulky and dated form factor, it shipped without a wifi-only option, etc. Motorola could probably have overcome many of these issues by delaying the product until the software was ready, and charging at least $200 less for the product. As it stands, though, they have no chance of success at the current price point.




Good
By xyn081s on 3/16/2011 12:28:06 PM , Rating: 2
I hope it fails badly. Who in their right mind would spend that kind of money on a tablet?? Motorola needs to pull their head out of their ... and wake up. There's absolutely no way these tablets are worth that kind of money.




Unpopular but great
By rburnham on 3/17/2011 8:12:06 PM , Rating: 2
I love my Xoom. It does feel overpriced, but once the cost fades from my mind, the unit itself is great. it does almost everything I want it to do. The only thing missing a good magazine app, and that is the fault of the app developers, like Zinio, and the publishers.

It's a shame the sales aren't better. I also own a Zune, which is apparently going away. Maybe I just have a thing for hardware that isn't that popular, but is actually really good




Shocker
By bplewis24 on 3/15/2011 12:09:35 PM , Rating: 1
An inferior Apple product is outselling a superior (in OS and hardware) competitor's product. Who would have saw that coming*?

*sarcasm




FUD, Inaccuracies & Lies
By bplewis24 on 3/15/2011 12:33:18 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
But according to Global Equities analyst Trip Chowdry, these downsides, coupled with Honeycomb's overall poor usability and the tablet's inconsistent, poor battery life, are hampering Xoom sales. Chowdry called Honeycomb, Google's tablet-optimized version of the Android mobile OS, "extremely complicated and confusing,"


Does it not matter to anybody that what this "analyst" is basing his projection on is flat out untrue?

Honeycomb is the superior tablet OS to iOS, period: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4191/motorola-xoom-r...
quote:
Am I more likely to use the Xoom than the iPad? Yes. The hardware is faster but more importantly, the software is better suited for multitasking. I’m a bigger fan of Honeycomb’s multitasking UI & notification system compared to the double-tap-home and passive notifications you get with the iPad and iOS. I can be more productive with the Xoom than I can be with the iPad as a result


Poor battery life? It's on par with the iPad/2 in every test:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20035094-1.htm...
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4191/motorola-xoom-r...

Extremely complicated and confusing? From an Apple Developer/Fan: http://www.technobuffalo.com/blog/companies/google...
quote:
My view of Google’s mobile operating system has changed drastically in the past week, moving from one end of the spectrum to the other. After seeing Honeycomb on a few devices at CES


From Anand's review:
quote:
Honeycomb feels a lot like Google’s take on iOS without sacrificing any of what makes Android unique. It’s a healthy combination of the appliance-like iOS without giving up any of the user facing customization & flexibility that Android users love.


Look, it's fine if people want to crow over Apple selling millions upon millions of iPad2s while the overpriced Xoom struggles to move a comparable amount of units. But can we stop making up stories and pretending it's because it's an inferior device, and simply accept that it's because of Apple's fanatic fan-base and media/marketing relationships?

Brandon




"Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine." -- Bill Gates











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