Hard Sell: Motorola’s $800 Xoom Tablet, No Flash Support

Apple may not have to worry too much about Motorola's Xoom tablet considering its steep price and lack of the competitive feature Adobe Flash

Motorola's Xoom tablet is seen by many as the iPad's first big competitor, but its steep $800 price and lack of Adobe Flash support suggest otherwise.

Has the upcoming Motorola Xoom fallen at the first hurdle in the fight against Apple's iPad dominance? After Motorola announced its iPad competitor will cost more than the iPad, a Verizon promo uncovered the fact that the Xoom won't come with support for Adobe's Flash technology until sometime this spring.

Support for Adobe's Flash technology has been an argument for the Android operating system since Apple CEO Steve Jobs notoriously said that Flash is a dying technology and that it won't make it onto iOS devices for several reasons. Flash support appeared in Android with version 2.2 and Google even flaunted it as a killer feature for tablets running Honeycomb (3.0), like the Motorola Xoom.

But it looks like Adobe and/or Google have yet to put the finishing touches on Flash's implementation in Android 3.0. An advertisement for the Xoom on Verizon's site says (in 6 point text at the bottom) that Adobe Flash support on the Xoom is expected in Spring 2011, meaning this functionality won't be available at the launch of the first Honeycomb tablet on February 24. Considering how slow carriers and manufacturers are when it comes to software updates, this Spring 2011 update could mean more like late Spring 2011 ETA.

Meanwhile, Adobe said last week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that it is still working on Flash 10.2 for smartphones and tablets running Android. The company promised users of dual-core tablets and phones will benefit of HD Flash video and up to 30 frames per second performance. Flash 10.2 for Windows and Mac has been released earlier this month, but Adobe gave no clear indication when the mobile version of the plug-in will actually be available for users.

So far, despite positive initial reactions from reviewers, the Motorola Xoom has failed two tests against the iPad. Despite the Xoom's better specifications, the tablet is still more expensive than the closest iPad match. The 32GB 3G iPad costs $729, while the Xoom equivalent is $800, besides any contracts you might have to sign with Verizon. Add that to the fact that Flash support will be missing initially, a defining feature in the war against the iPad, and Xoom's chances to be a major hit suddenly don't stack up that well.

Kindle Becomes Best Selling Item on Amazon

When Apple announced last January that they were releasing the iPad, many believed that it would kill the Kindle and any other e-reader. Why would anyone want to purchase something that did only one task—reading—when they could have something that could do a lot of different tasks including reading?

Amazon made the wise choice to go in the opposite direction of Apple. While Apple moved in the direction of making a more expensive tablet that could do many different functions, Amazon moved in the direction of a lightweight and inexpensive reader. The iPad starts at $500 while the Kindle starts at $140.

This significant price difference has helped Amazon to increase their market share and get a significant number of buyers. So many, in fact, that it has become the highest selling item ever on Amazon.

The company announced on Monday that the Third Generation Kindle had beaten out “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh book in the series, which had previously held the record.

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon went so far as to include in a press release about how different the iPad and Kindle are. ““We’re seeing that many of the people who are buying Kindles also own an LCD tablet. Customers report using their LCD tablets for games, movies and Web browsing, and their Kindles for reading sessions,” Mr. Bezos said in the release. He went on to say that the price of the Kindle is “low enough that people don’t have to choose” between devices.

One of the other factors that have contributed to the success of the Kindle is their software. They have made it available on all different e-readers, computers and devices. Therefore, users can start reading an e-book on a computer and then continue reading it on a different device. This allows people to get used to the Kindle book store.

On the other hand, the Apple bookstore is only available on some of Apple’s products. This limits the number of people that are using it.

With the number of Kindle sales obviously on the rise, it is apparent that Amazon is going to continue holding the monopoly in e-book sales. However, they are going to have to continue fighting hard to ensure that Android tablets that are being released don’t destroy its lead.

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