First there was the Dell Streak, next the Samsung Galaxy Tab and now there’s the Motorola Xoom. All these “me too” offerings are trying to knock the iPad off its perch as the industry-leading (90% + market share) tablet. I won’t even mention the HP Slate or RIM Playbook because there doesn’t seem to be a way to purchase either one just yet.
The Streak and Galaxy Tab are both smaller, 5 & 7” devices running some version of Android (I get confused which version does what), so it’s fair to say they don’t really compete head-to-head with the iPad, but the Xoom makes no bones about matching or bettering the iPad spec for spec. The current iPad, that is. For the sake of argument, let’s assume Apple won’t announce a new and improved iPad at their press event March 2nd and see if the Xoom has a shot at knocking off the existing model.
First, let’s compare the major hardware differences. The Xoom is approximately the same size and weight as the iPad but offers a slightly higher resolution screen (1280 X 800 vs. 1024 X 768 for the iPad). The Xoom also has a faster dual core 1 GHz processor compared to the single core in the iPad. Thirdly, the Xoom sports both front and rear facing cameras, 2 and 5 MP respectively. Of all these differences, the only ones noticeable to the average consumer are the cameras.
Next, what about price? Motorola is offering the 32 GB Xoom for $800. You can get the same model for $600 if you agree to a 2-year, $20/mo. contract with Verizon for use on their network. The 32 GB 3G iPad is $729 and there’s really no subsidy worth mentioning. Let’s just say the price is a wash, but I think I’m being a little generous to the Xoom.
So, I give the Xoom a slight hardware edge and the cost is a draw. So, why is the iPad currently so dominant and why will it continue its reign at the top? Obviously, Apple enjoys the top spot mainly because the iPad virtually invented the tablet class as we know it today. Lots of manufacturers have been making Windows tablets for years, but they are all little more than a laptop PC with a touchscreen instead of a keyboard. Windows’ poor touch interface and its need for beefy hardware rendered these clunky devices undesirable for all but a few niche customers. No matter how much Bill Gates pimped these tablets; they’ve never comprised as much as 1% of the PC market. The iPad’s intuitive, elegant iOS user interface, mountain of apps, light weight and all-day battery life made it an instant success. Since last April, Apple has sold over 15 million of them; more than all the Windows-based tablets ever made by a factor of four. This success left the competition completely flat-footed. It took six months before there was even a competing product on the market. I use the words “competing product” liberally. Dell’s 5” Streak went on sale last October and some question whether it’s even a tablet at all. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab followed the Streak by a few weeks and there have been a few other lesser players since, but even with all these choices, consumers choose the iPad over 85% of the time.
Now there is a new “iPad killer”, Motorola’s Xoom and it matches or bests the iPad’s hardware specs. Why do I think it doesn’t have a snowball’s chance against the iPad? Well, I can site a couple of reasons: 1) It isn’t that much better, and 2) The Android ecosystem cannot match the Apple software juggernaut of iOS, iTunes and the iOS App Store. To the first point: If you are a company designing a “killer” device to overcome a class defining product enjoying a huge head start, you had better make damned sure your device can trounce the competition in almost every category. Yes, the Xoom has a faster processor, a bit better screen resolution and it has cameras. Is it better hardware than the nearly year-old iPad? Yes. Is it much better? I don’t think so. The Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” release shipping on the Xoom is strides ahead of previous releases and the first Android OS designed specifically for tablets. Is it better software than iOS? No. Is the Android marketplace comparable to the iTunes App Store. No way; especially with regards to apps for tablet devices. The iTunes App Store has over 65,000 iPad-specific apps available right now with hundreds of thousands of iPhone apps that work on the iPad just fine. At the Android Marketplace you’ll be lucky to find a dozen or so for the Xoom at this point and given the fragmented state of the Android ecosystem, it’s questionable how well other Android phone apps will work on the larger tablet format. In researching this article I went to the Android Market looking for apps for the Xoom. In doing so I discovered just how difficult it was to find apps designed for the larger screens of tablet devices. The store doesn’t differentiate and searching does absolutely no good. Laptop magazine wrote an article today on the subject of finding apps for an Android tablet. Their advice is: 1) Download them from the developer’s web site, 2) Search third-party app stores, 3) Haunt Android tablet forums, 4) Google for them and 5) Get them from your Android phone. Are they kidding?!?! If it’s that difficult to find apps for Android tablets (including the Xoom), these devices are sunk before they ever leave port. A word of advice for any potential iPad competitors out there: Supply an app on your device for finding other apps for your device. I’m a geek and I have trouble discerning which Android apps will work best on a Xoom. For a typical customer this could be really frustrating (if not downright impossible). It certainly puts Apple’s user-friendly iTunes App Store experience into sharp relief.
While the Xoom may have a slight (and I predict brief) hardware advantage over the iPad, the folks at Motorola have a very long way to go to even begin to match Apple’s end-to-end user experience. At the end of the day, that experience is what makes a hugely successful product other companies try to make “killers” for. Count the Xoom as a nice device but don’t sell your Apple stock just yet.