If the Motorola Xoom is a bit pricey to you, then you may be happy to hear that a cheaper version may be on the way. The new version looks to be essentially an identical twin to the original, but cuts the internal storage in half, giving you 16GB. The smaller memory should bring the price down, but by how much is anyone’s guess.
It’s good to see another version of the Xoom coming to Verizon, as sales of the tablet have reportedly been quite sluggish. Chopping the internal memory in half should bring the price point down, but likely not too much. Plus, the tablet sports a micro SD card slot, so you can add in more memory if you end up needing some extra space. That said, the slot currently isn’t usable at the moment, and will need to receive an update for it to be activated.
With the introduction of the 16GB 3G model, we can only hope to see another version work its way down, nixing the 3G radio in favor of a cheaper, WiFi-only setup. The existing WiFi-only Xoom is still a bit on the expensive side, and even though it’s on par with the iPad 2 32GB, WiFi-only version, Apple gives users a 16GB option to choose from. If Motorola wants to compete with Apple, it needs to compete on all levels, including price, not just specifications. If we do end up seeing a WiFi-Only 16GB Xoom come our way, by that time there will likely be newer tablets similar in specifications that best it in price.
What’s surprising is that Motorola didn’t offer this option from the beginning. If that were the case, and Motorola provided us a comparable iPad alternative in multiple versions, I would already have one now, even if the Honeycomb competition is looking brighter by the day.
At this point in the game, we’d say it’s best to let the landscape fill out. With a handful on their way at the end of this month and next month, your choices will be plentiful.
[Via: Droid-Life]