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Motorola have been facing some negative commentary from the press due to the price of their Xoom tablet. Research into the matter shows that the Xoom is actually a higher cost to make than the iPad, due to the performance internals.
IHS iSuppli (Ed: thats a lot of i's) have analysed the Xoom, showing that the $799 price tag is actually justified when compared to the Apple iPad 3G 32GB model which retails for $729 in the US.
The cost of materials for the Motorola Xoom is $359.92 based on current pricing which compares against $320 for the iPad 3G with 32GB of memory, according to IHS iSuppli.
Wayne Lam, an IHS analyst said “Motorola has closely lined up the Xoom's component costs with that of the iPad's, especially where it counts: in the touch screen, the display, and the cellular radio. Of all the “iPad killers” analyzed by the IHS iSuppli teardown team, the Xoom best approximates the cost/performance standard set by Apple, The Xoom…equals many of the iPad's best features–while also making up for some of the iPad's shortcomings, such as the lack of a camera–at least until Apple begins shipping its second-generation product line.”
The Xoom's screen for isntances costs $140, around 39 percent of the total cost. The current 9.7 inch iPad screen costs $125. The additional cost means that Motorola can offer a 1280×800 resolution (rather than 1024×768). However the iPad screen has in plane switching technology which allows for a much wider viewing angle and higher quality colour.
The iPad 3G's A4 processor only costs $11 whereas the nvidia dual core processor in the Xoom costs over $20. Memory in the Xoom accounts for $80.40 in the Xoom whereas the iPad memory costs $67.80. The Xoom however has 1GB of system memory compared to 256mb available in the iPad.
KitGuru says: While this is really interesting, the battle will start again when the iPad 2 is released very shortly. If Apple can keep the pricing the same, then Motorola could be facing a much toughe battle in the coming months.
