Price sensitivity
Forget rogue journalists, retailers are by far the biggest offenders when it comes to embargo-breaking.
A UK Engadget writer got up very early in the morning to post on a tip that PC World had put up a pre-order offer for the Motorola Xoom. Usually these don't offer any information that isn't already in the public domain, but some bright spark at PCW appears to have put the wrong graphic up, and this one had a price on it.
The UK price for the Wi-Fi-only Xoom, it seems, will be £450. This is more competitive than we were expecting, seeing as the 3G one costs $800 in the US. It's also £60 less than the equivalently specced Apple iPad.
We have to assume PCW wasn't supposed to announce this yet, because since Engadget posted the story (with screenshot, of course), it has taken down the price and replaced it with ‘For more information, come back soon'. Sorry guys, looks like the cat's out of the bag.
There's also an indication of how much the 3G version will cost from T-Mobile Germany. The same story shows a press release announcing the availability of the 3G Xoom for €700. This seems a strangely high price, unless it's stand-alone and the press release has omitted the subsidised with-contract price.
It will be interesting to see what operators do with the Xoom pricing over here, but if they're expecting us to shell out £700 plus a contract we feel they'll be bitterly disappointed, especially with the Wi-Fi-only one being apparently so much cheaper. Last time we looked, 3G chipsets didn't cost £250.
