Wi-Fi Motorola Xoom can be had for just $450 at Staples until July 9

The Motorola Xoom was the first tablet to run Android Honeycomb, the version of Google’s mobile operating system optimized specifically for tablets. Because of that, or perhaps in spite of that, the Xoom was expensive. It was, in fact, $100 more expensive than Apple’s iPad 2. That’s not a good strategy if you want to compete with Apple, a company that’s recognized by most as selling its products at a premium compared to competitors (the famed ‘Apple tax’). Motorola may have tried to create its own ‘Moto tax’ with the Xoom but the truth is that it failed miserably.
                                                                         The first iteration of Honeycomb was far from perfect, with many inconsistencies and bugs, and the hardware itself was nothing that spectacular either. So people just decided to skip the Xoom and wait for other Android tablets, such as the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, which has been a lot more affordable since it hit the streets, and as a consequence has seen many stock shortages in the US.

Motorola seems to have woken up to the whole thing and decided to cut the Xoom’s price to $499.99, matching the cheapest iPad 2. That price applies, of course, to the Wi-Fi-only version of the tablet. Now though there’s a way to get the Xoom even cheaper than what Moto recommends, but only if you act fast.

The Mobile World Congress has started with very good news for Android tablet lovers. First, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 got official yesterday, then earlier today Motorola confirmed that the Xoom tablet will be sold in Europestarting in the second quarter of this year.

 But back when it was first announced, during CES in Las Vegas in January, unfortunately the software was very far from ready, so all our own Brad got was a demo video… of a demo of the software.

     However, much has changed in little over a month, and Motorola’s booth at MWC is packed with Xooms ready to be fondled by tablet fans and the press. Here for your enjoyment then is a demo video of xoom as above.

Let’s not forget that the Xoom was the first officially unveiled tablet to run Android 3.0 Honeycomb. 

The Motorola Xoom will be competing head-on against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, and their features are very similar – though not identical, so there’s plenty of room for differentiation. Of course, one of the most important factors that may come into account when people will consider purchasing either one will be price – be that actual, unsubsidized price, or the price that operators will ask if they do choose to subsidize any of these two tablets. Also interesting is the fact that although these tablets have the same screen size and very similar dimensions, the Xoom is 131 grams heavier than the Galaxy Tab 10.1