Motorola on Friday debuted a cheaper, more kid-friendly version of the Motorola Xoom tablet, the Xoom Family Edition.
The 10.1-inch Xoom Family Edition will be priced at $379 and will be sold exclusively through Best Buy beginning Oct. 16. The Family Edition contains 16 Gbytes of storage and uses Wi-Fi only; Motorola began selling a Wi-Fi-only Xoom in March with 32 Gbytes of storage, for $599.
Since then, however, the $199 Kindle Fire was launched. That seemingly forced price cuts on the RIM PlayBook, as other tablet manufacturers and their retailers discounted the tablets in an effort to compete.
Motorola also bundled a “MotoPack by Motorola” app downloader with the Xoom Family Edition, which performs two functions: first, it pushes apps that Motorola itself has selected for the tablet, and ensures that they can run on the Xoom hardware. Motorola apparently felt it necessary to serve as a gateway to ensure that only tablet-optimized apps are pushed to the Xoom Family Edition. The Xoom Family Edition runs Android 3.1 “Honeycomb”.
he tablet also ships with the Kid Zone by Zoodles app, which also serves as a gateway of sorts for kids, allowing them to only access a range of content that’s been preselected by the parents. Additionally, the Zoom Family Edition comes preloaded with QuickOffice Pro HD, MotoPrint, and games like Asphalt 6 and Sim City Deluxe.
“Nowadays, everyone from mom, dad to the youngest child use the same tablet device. We set out to design a device that’s kid and family-friendly yet versatile enough to handle your business needs,” said Jim Hamilton, corporate vice president, global retail & distribution, Motorola Mobility, in a statement. “The Motorola Xoom Family Edition offers a world of games, shows and video tools and because it’s from Motorola, you know it’s durable and will last for years to come.”
Inside the Xoom Family Edition is a 1-GHz dual-core processor. On the back, like the Xoom, is a 5 Mpixel camera that can record 720p video.
[PCMAG]
