But this year will be different. The Motorola Xoom is only the very first among many tablet computers running Google Android 3.0 ("Honeycomb"), and within the next few months we'll see the Blackberry Playbook running a QNX variant and HP TouchPad running WebOS. As such, I felt that the incremental improvements on the iPad 2 may not be enough to keep these new tablets at bay.
Why are so many companies imitating Apple's iPad this year?
The Motorola Xoom is only the very first among many tablet computers running Google Android 3.0 ("Honeycomb")
You might be interested in what Jason Kincaid has to say about the Xoom: http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/05/ipad-2-xoom-fight/. Kincaid is a big Android fan. After shelling out $800 for a Xoom plus a required carrier activation, he found the experience underwhelming. He said, "I think it stinks."
PC-centric friend and I decide to go to Best Buy to check out the Xoom. First warning sign, there isn’t one on dispay. Blue shirt approaches and asks if we could use help. Friend says we are looking for a Xoom.
“We have one over here to demo.”
“Do you have any for sale?”
“No.”
Friend looks smug. “So you sold out?”
“No, we only received three. One for display, two for sale.”
“You sold the other two already?”
“Yes, but one came back.”
“Why?”
“Didn’t play Flash. The guy says he’ll be back on Friday to pick up the new iPad. Says, if it doesn’t play Flash, he might as well get one that has apps and costs less.”
“Can I buy the one that came back?”
“The guy tried to download several droid apps and the computer is hopelessly locked up. We have to wipe it and reinstall the OS, but we haven’t received clear instructions on how to do that.”
After a few more minutes of the Xoom reputation sinking lower and lower into the muck, my friend decided it was time to leave.
“We can go look at the iPad 2 on Saturday, if you want.”
All I received as an answer was a look that could kill...