Motorola Mobility's CEO explains the $800 price tag for the Motorola XOOM

Ever since we reported that the Motorola XOOM would cost $799.99 for an unsubsidized model, and $600 for a Wi-Fi only version, you have been wondering why the 3G version will cost you 8 Benjamins. Well, who better to explain the XOOM's pricing than Motorola Mobility's CEO Sanjay Jha.

According to Jha, pricing the XOOM $70 more than the Apple iPad with the same amount of storage is ok because, "We felt that our ability to deliver 50Mbps would justify the $799 price point. It is 32GB with 3G and a free upgrade to 4G. Being competitive with iPad is important. We feel that from the hardware and capabilities we deliver, we are at least competitive and in a number of ways better."

Another interesting note is that those who purchase the 3G model will need to pay for at least one month of 3G service in order to unlock WiFi connectivity. That will bring the price of Motorola's 3G tablet about $100 higher than the cost of a similarly spec'd iPad. Jha also noted that the Motorola XOOM will be upgradeable to Verizon's 4G pipelines which should be worth paying a premium price to Apple's 3G tablet.

The executive did have some worries about the tablet business as a whole, calling Samsung's problems selling the Galaxy Tab and the large number of returns that the Korean based firm suffered something to be concerned about.

source: WSJ