Motorola posts first quarter numbers: Shipped 250,000 Xoom tablets

April 28, 2011 By Molly McHugh

While Motorola shipped more than some expected, the Xoom's first quarter numbers prove it didn't live up to the hype.

After various reports claiming that Motorola’s Xoom sales were disappointing, it’s not surprise that its first quarter numbers are less than impressive. According to the Motorola Mobility’s financial statement, it shipped only 250,000 Xoom tablets. While these numbers outdo the depressingly low estimate of 100,000 units shipped that Deutsche Bank analysts predicted at the beginning of April, they aren’t anything to get excited about.

The Xoom has had the cards stacked against it from the start. The extremely expensive tablet launched before it had integrated 4G or fully supported Flash, which were supposed to set it apart from the competition – most notably, the iPad and iPad 2. It doesn’t seem fair to compare, but context seems necessary:

Apple sold 300,000 iPads during its opening weekend.
Samsung shipped more than 600,000 Galaxy Tabs in its first month.
First day sales for the BlackBerry PlayBook are expected to outdo both the Galaxy Tab and the Xoom: Some analysts predict BlackBerry sold 50,000 units in one day.

It’s somewhat discouraging news for the Xoom, which was supposed to be the best answer to the iPad yet, and also introduce the world to Honeycomb, Android’s tablet-optimized OS. But it’s not all bad news for Motorola, which reported $3 billion in net revenues, 22-percent more than last year’s first quarter postings.

Showing 7 comments

Bastien Eymery at 8:36am 6th May 2011 I think the "hype" referred to in such articles is that amongst digital blogs and specialist websites, rather than mass market advertising or consumer media. The iPad 2 had the great apple advertising machine behind it, with tens of millions spend on media buy alone. The Xoom's hype has actually been non-existent amongst consumers. I would venture that 250,000 units is a pretty good number - at least interms of return on marketing investment! Shame about flash and 4G, Moto are probably beating themselves up for trying to compete with Apple for their release date and hoped for a miracle. A better strategy would have been to get flash and 4G working and differentiate themselves somewhat, whilst boasting a superior OS. Honeycomb is incredibly powerful and Moto's hardware is working really well with it - they just need more marketing!
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BurntHam77 at 10:37am 30th April 2011 I love my Xoom. Still waiting for an Android version of Zinio, though.
Jeremy Steele at 4:28pm 29th April 2011 Yeah it's cheaper than the iPad 2, but it's still way more expensive than it needs to be. Also, as for the UI, I like that a lot better. I don't see the need for your entire home screen being cluttered with crap.
Lorne Hammond at 4:28am 29th April 2011 I'm not sold on the UI, that screen has so much wasted space.
Scott Aron Bloom at 4:08am 29th April 2011 cheaper then ipad 2
Jeremy Steele at 4:06am 29th April 2011 Would definitely like one of these, but the price point is just too high for me.