Epic Fail - Motorola Xoom's $800 price tag

Ok, let's get something clear here: Any competitor to the iPad needs to launch with a low-end, WiFi only model at or below the WiFi iPad's $500. In the mind of the consumer, the iPad is the best (and maybe even only) tablet on the market and you have to both undercut it on price and beat it in specs to convince them to get anything else.

So what do you do if you are Motorola? Well, you price your competitor (and the standard-barer for Android 3.0 I might add) at an astronomical $800, which only undercuts the most expensive iPad you can buy (3G 64 GB model) by $30.  On top of that, you apparently force customers to sign up for at least one month of Verizon data service ($20 for 1GB) probably in the hope that most will forget about the charge and never bother to cancel.

I write over at Android Central, and to say the feedback has been less than positive would be and understatement. Here are some choice quotes from said freedback from the AC article on this news and from the Facebook page:

• "FAIL! Overpriced. Good luck with that Motorola."
• "Xoom = Kin"
• "Wow, are they for real?"
• "That price is ridiculous. I'm out."
• "Lol what a joke. I really shouldn't even be laughing because it's not funny. This is not even acceptable. Not that I was getting one anyway, I'm waiting to see what comes of the G Slate, but this concerns me."

Like that last commentator, this concerns me as well. I'm concerned that the carriers have got the manufacturers convinced that they need 3G in their device to compete with the iPad. I'm concerned that manufacturers look at impressive sales numbers of Android phones and take similar sales of Android tablets for granted. I'm concerned that the passiveness of Google when carriers and manufactures twist Android to serve their own greed will cause restrictions like this to become the expected, not the exception. And I'm concerned that all the mindshare gains that Android has made over the past year will start becoming undone thanks to unabashed corporate greed and stupidity. 

That all being said, Motorola did not officially announce any price yet. What we know so far is based on pricing from a leaked Best Buy flyer obtained by Engadget. So, Motorola, you still have a chance to make this right. Price the 3G version at or under $700 and get a WiFi only version at that $499 price point. You've already seen what the reactions from the Android fanboys are, do you really think the average consumer will react any better?

And if all of this ends up being true, I might take my tablet purchasing dollars elsewhere. Namely, HP and Palm, who by all indications actually know what they are doing.