Motorola Xoom Gets A Price Cut

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When I reviewed the Motorola Xoom after it came out, the tablet’s price was one of my major reservations. Now, Motorola has addressed that, sort of, by taking a substantial cut off the price of the device. The 16GB Xoom, which was $599, is now just $499. Many bloggers and pundits see this as the “Motorola tax” being taken off the device.

This first surfaced yesterday when Walmart “rolled back” the price of the Xoom to $499. When we covered that yesterday, my colleague Robert Nelson wondered if it was Walmart doing that on their own, or something larger. Motorola’s own website has confirmed that the new MSRP of the Xoom is $499. That price is even set for the tablet in their own webstore.

Regarding the “Motorola tax”, many thought that the Motorola Xoom was needlessly more expensive than it should have been. The device is competing against the iPad 2, and the tablet was actually competitive price-wise against the iPad, although it suffered from the fact that it isn’t the iPad. Sales-wise, I think the market bore out that Motorola had priced the Xoom too high originally.

Although I had some software issues with the Xoom when I reviewed, it still was a beautiful 10-inch tablet with a great interface.  Considering that it’s been patched to Android 3.1, you may want to pick one up while it’s at $499. Or maybe you want to wait until it’s a bit lower. In the words of one major news network, we’ll report and let you decide.