The Motorola Xoom and the Atrix are some pretty solid Android mobile devices, but with such high price points it seems consumers are shying away.
Official sales numbers for the Xoom haven’t been released yet, but according to a Dow Jones Wire report analysts from Deutsche Bank are estimating the sales of the Xoom at 100,000 units sold within the tablet’s first month and a half of availability. That is substantially less than the 300,000 the iPad’s first day on sale.
Price is definitely holding it back. A 3G 32GB Xoom, costs a whopping 800 bucks, while the comparable iPad tops out at around US$580. Despite it’s price, Consumer Reports still feels that it is the most viable competitor for the iPad 2.
It’s the same story for the Motorola Atrix, which has disappointing sales figures. The HTC Inspire recently dropped to 50 dollars, via an Amazon Deal. While that is 50 dollars less, the Atrix is still a superb phone, but aside from having to compete with cheaper options, the price of it’s much hyped peripherals is also a deal breaker.
We’ve all seen the commercials, where the guy is being hassled by what appear to be airport security officers. The keyboard dock, with screen look like something you really want, but when you see the price, that all changes. The dock alone is $500, that’s more than double the price of the actual device. That’s like buying a 800 dollar computer, and having to pay over $1600 just to have a monitor and keyboard.
Motorola needs to be realistic. If you really want to compete with the desire that people get in their eyes when Apple releases another shiny, black, chrome and aluminium product, you have to price competitively. We will have to wait and see if their pricing changes with the release of lower price options in the coming months.
Source: Wired
Surprised much? This will most likely be a trend. It’s hard to compete with someone who designs everything in house. Until someone can design all their components in house along with software they won’t compete and be equal on price, features and build quality. Personally I wouldn’t mind Google making their own tablet and no not just an adapted Nexus concept but everything needs to get designed by Google.
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Err. The comparable iPad, 3G with 32GB of memory is actually $729, so the price is a little closer. That being said, Motorola is still screwing up the pricing, not necessarily by having a high end (one could argue that the addition of HDMI, eventual 4G, and a micro SD slot are worth the extra $70), but by failing to have a low-end. The upcoming Galaxy Tab sequels got it right by a.) announcing all the models at once, and 2.) by having price points that match and/or beat the iPad. The cheapest upcoming Galaxy Tab will be the WiFi-only 16GB 8.9″ Tab, retailing for $469. The WiFi-only Xoom, which reached release a full month after the 4G version is still taking on 32GB of storage and hovering at the $600 price point. There are expensive iPads and expensive Galaxy Tabs, but each at least has a cheap counterpart. The Xoom does not.
As for the Atrix, you’re spot on. The Atrix, by itself is a nice device. However, the standout feature that gets advertised is one that costs more than then phone itself. Even if you buy the phone and the lapdock together, the total is $500, meaning the lapdock costs $300, which is a full $100 more than the phone by itself. No sales campaign should be dependent on someone buying a $300 accessory.
I like the stuff Motorola is making, I just wish they’d get their act together on pricing and packaging.