Wi-Fi-only Motorola Xoom tablet to reach stores March 27, cost $599
Motorola announced the Xoom Wi-Fi on Wednesday morning and said the iPad competitor would be sold at Amazon.com, Best Buy, Costco, RadioShack, Sam's Club, Staples and Wal-Mart stores.
The Xoom was first released on Feb. 24 in a Wi-Fi and 3G version through Best Buy and Verizon stores, selling for either $799.99 for the device free of contract, or for $599.99 with a two-year data plan.
The Wi-Fi-only model of the Xoom will sell for $599.99.
Both the Wi-Fi and 3G model and the Wi-Fi-only unit feature 32 GB of memory, a 10.1-inch touch screen, a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM and run on Google's Android Honeycomb operating system. Honeycomb is the first version of Android designed for tablet use.
As of now, Motorola has announced no other memory options or price changes for the Xoom Wi-Fi or the Xoom with Wi-Fi and 3G.
The Xoom is considered by many to be Android's best shot at competing with the Apple iPad, which sold more than 15 million units last year and resulted in a sellout this weekend at many retailers with the release of the iPad 2.
The iPad lineup starts at $499 for a Wi-Fi-only, 16 GB model. A Wi-Fi-only 32 GB iPad sells for 599.99 -- the same price as the Xoom Wi-Fi.
So far, the Xoom is the only tablet running Honeycomb, though many manufacturers such as Samsung, LG and HTC are promising to release tablets in the coming months that will also run the tablet-tailored version of Android.
Source: Latimesblogs
