The nation’s largest telco Telstra has released pricing and launch details for Motorola’s highly anticipated Xoom tablet, as well as confirming details for its rumoured launch of the company’s innovative Atrix smartphone.
The Xoom is one of the first devices to run Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), which has been designed for the tablet form factor. It is supported by a dual-core 1GHz processor, 32GB of memory and 1GB of RAM. It sports a 10.1 inch, 1280×800 widescreen display, a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2 megapixel front-facing camera. Built from anodized aluminum, the Xoom weighs 730 grams.
In terms of the Xoom’s battery life, Motorola promises up to 10 hours of video playback, 9 hours web browsing on 3G mobile broadband and a 3.5 hour recharging time.
With respect to the Xoom, Telstra will sell the device for the outright price of $840, or customers can also pick it up on either $29, $49 or $79 monthly capped plans, with an additional tablet repayment cost of $25 for the lower plans or $15 for the $79 plan. The plans come with 1GB, 7GB and 12GB of data quota included. The device goes on sale on 24 May. The details were revealed in a press conference in Sydney this afternoon.
The Atrix attracted a significant degree of attention when it launched in the US at the CES tradeshow several months ago, due to its high resolution display, dual-core CPU, 960×540 display resolution and its ability to interact with a number of peripherals such as laptops and monitors, allowing it to extend its functionality dramatically.
Like the Xoom, Telstra will sell the Atrix for $840 outright, or on a $59 monthly plan including 1.5GB of data quota. Customers will also need to pay a $20 monthly device repayment. Telstra has exclusivity on the Atrix until the end of July, with the device slated to go on sale in early June.
At the event, Telstra director of mobile products Andrew Volard was asked whether the company could give customers any assurance that the Xoom wouldn’t see similar price cuts soon after launch as Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablet did this year. The tablet went on sale for $999 outright in late 2010, before having its price cut down to $299 several weeks ago.
Volard said product lifecycles moved “quite quickly” when they were in a new category such as the emerging tablet market, which is seeing a rush of competition this year after the early dominance of Apple’s iPad device throughout 2010 and early 2011.
“We are very excited about the fact that we’re taking [the Xoom] to the market at the end of the month,” he told journalists. “We believe it’s extremely aggressively priced in the market and will do particularly well.”
However, other manufacturers have entered the Australian market with devices priced dramatically less than the Xoom, but with similar specifications. Acer’s Iconia Tab, for example, has gone on sale in Australia for as low as $579, despite featuring similar hardware to the Xoom, and running the same version 3.0 of Google’s Android platform.
In addition, the lowest-end 3G version of Apple’s iPad 2 tablet, which comes with 16GB of disk space, sells for $729 – more than $100 less than the Xoom.
Image credit: Motorola
So… for 1 gig a month and the tablet, I’d be paying $54 per month for 24 months?
I really wish they’d release these pre-paid data sims for all tablets / phones like they have for the iPad. i.e. $120 for 12 gigs that can be used up over a whole YEAR.
The way it’s worded it sounds like you are getting a plan that does voice as well
Oh, fair enough, but I guess my gripe still stands, as I doubt I’d ever make a non-data call on the thing :O
yeah same, if I got one of these I’d use my phone to make calls not a tablet
It’s insane. Unless they start offering pre-paid data sims, I don’t see why I’d ever get a 3G + Wi-Fi version; I’d just get a Wi-Fi only version and use my phone to tether / as a hotspot.
“the lowest-end 3G version of Apple’s iPad 2 tablet, which comes with 16GB of disk space, sells for $729 – more than $100 less than the Xoom”
Yes but according to your article, the Xoom comes with 32Gb so you’d have to compare it to the price of the 32Gb iPad yeah?
Which is A$ 839.00 from the Apple website, so they are the same price for pretty well much exactly the same specs yeah?
Sure, but I think the point being that consumers are often looking for the cheapest option and/or don’t care too much about on-board storage, so if they can get an iPad2 for the same price, they’ll probably go that way (unless they are well informed of the benefits of Android which most people aren’t).
Given there is no 16GB Xoom to compare to, I think it’s still a valid comparison to make with the cheapest 3G iPad2 you can get.
well yes if you are going “oh i can get this at this price” then it is a valid comparative but it actually isn’t a fair comparative.
Also because you can get this on contract they will get this one most likely because it has the pay per month option instead of initial outlay
No one said it was fair, as they are obviously very different tablets, but comparison with the cheapest 3G iPad will be a comparison many consumers will be making, therefore I think its a valid one.
I agree the contract pay-offs are going to be appealing to some people (personally I couldn’t stand having my tablet tied to a contract of any sort). When I do eventually buy one it definitely won’t be a 3G model either. Absolutely no need given I have a smartphone with 3GB of monthly data.
Given it’s relatively lame launch and slow sales in the US, I’ll be interested to see how well the Xoom does here. It’s got a lot to offer, but it’s benefits may be overlooked by many less tech-savvy consumers, who know they want a tablet, but don’t know why :)
I bought a Wi-Fi only Xoom when I was in the states recently, and given how dead simple it is to tether it to my Android phone, I don’t know why anybody would ever buy a 3G tablet. Why pay for two data plans when you only need one?
Honeycomb is brilliant, BTW :-)
I’m waiting for BlackBerries PlayBook, that shit will blow both Android and Apple out of the water
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