Motorola Boss Confirms ‘Premium’ Xoom Price

Sanjay Jha, the CEO of Motorola Mobility has confirmed long standing speculation that the Xoom will $799 ($495) unsubsidised from Verizon Wireless in the US, but the Wi-Fi only version will cost around $600 (£372).

Jha also suggested the price, which struck analysts and consumers as high, was influenced by Apple’s market-leading iPad.

“Competing with Apple, you have to deliver premium products,” Jha told Reuters and other reporters at Mobile World Congress.

The 10.1-inch Motorola Xoom will be the first tablet computer based on Google’s Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” operating system when it launches from Verizon Wireless and Best Buy later this month.

Pricing Concern

Honeycomb has been equipped with several new graphical and user-interface capabilities, including 3D rendering, to improve performance of applications such as Google Maps and games.

The hardware itself includes two cameras for video chats and a dual-core Tegra 2 1GHz processor, and the device will be upgradable to support Verizon’s 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) network later.

January rumours that the tablet could cost $799 (£495)put off consumers, who perhaps delayed buying an iPad, which costs $500 (£310) for the entry-level Wi-Fi version and as much as $829 (£520) for the WiFi+3G model.

The chatter darkened once it was revealed that consumers would have to buy a 3G data plan to enable Wi-Fi on the Xoom.

£18 More For iPad

Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin told eWEEK Verizon’s pricing was very aggressive in the face of the iPad.

IDC analyst Susan Kevorkian said there isn’t a good reason for consumers to pay $800 (£496) for a Motorola tablet, when they could pay only $29 (£18) more for a 64GB iPad with 3G, or less for other iPad models.

Jha meanwhile also confirmed that nearly all Motorola products will use Android this year, ensuring more competition for not only the original iPad and iPad 2 coming this spring, but the current iPhone 4 and iPhone 5.