The geek in me really wanted the fastest new processor with the bells and whistles the ATRIX claimed. I picked the end of lifecycle chip on a stable OS. Bleeding edge products should have more support, but Moto put way too much effort into the accessories for their phone instead of improving the phone. This shows Moto’s management is not in touch with reality.

The ATRIX ads show accentuate this confusion. Dumb TSA screeners can’t understand his explanation that it is a phone that when connected to a proprietary dock, becomes a netbook. Moto knows that accessories help extend the lifecycle, but rarely drive sales. Case in point: Ipod and Iphones sold well, but continued to sell with the ubiquitous cheap cases, docks, and apps. Those items added value, but were the initial reason people preferred those products.

HTC is clearly the #1 Android vendor, Moto distant #2; but Google is hinting at standardizing future OS vendor tweeks that both companies rely on to differentiate their handsets. This standoff may result in Google making their own hardware, or at least bring about the long awaited release of Chrome on your phone.

http://thedroidguy.com/2011/02/wow-motorola-atrix-lapdock-1450-you-thought-it-was-expensieve-when-announced-huh/

SHAME ON YOU AT&T.

It is just not good value. (neither is the iPad)

And the Atrix bootloader is locked down. With that news, it immediately lost ALL OF ITS APPEAL. If it could be equipped with a custom ROM, one could hope for a proper Linux desktop replacing that horrible Webtop (keeping the Android instance for phone functions of course) and with that it could be an outstanding device. Not with the original ROM, and there is no trust in Motorola that they will fix Webtop.

It is pretty stupid for Motorola to price Xoom this way with the initial restrictions that you must have a data plan to get one, it is also a little bit behind iPad 2 in software, try YouTube or the browser on Nexus S or any Android, and you will get the idea.

Xoom had a veeeeeeery goooood momentum, and then the stupid people from Marketing angered everyone!

Basically, I’m holding on and hoping that the carriers stop nerfing stuff like the galaxy tab, and if that happens I’ll upgrade to the dual purpose tablet. If it doesn’t happen, I’ve got to make a choice… will I just stick with standard smartphones, or will I downgrade to a dumbphone and purchase a tablet? I might take a look at the atrix if it comes to verizon… but it’s still got other issues, though it’s a great idea in concept… just poor in execution.

There’s simply not a lot of purpose (for me at least) to having BOTH a true smartphone and a tablet. Frankly I kinda resent the obvious manipulations by the carriers to try to convince me to buy both.

Poor Xoom. I feel sorry for it.

And, Atrix should have been the Droid Atrix w/ LTE.

The Atrix was also too expensive at launch (especially for the laptop dock) and a somewhat poorer execution of a pretty good concept than it needed to be. The OS running in dock mode is way too slow. They would have been better served by letting Android run on the dock instead of another variation of Linux and/or possibly waiting until Honeycomb was fully released at some point so that it could run both on the phone and the dock, or they could have waited to release the entire setup until the Ice Cream Sandwich release so that it will be able to benefit from the availability of more tablet sized apps and a more unified small screen to big screen transitional experience.

The Atrix was also too expensive at launch (especially for the laptop dock) and a somewhat poorer execution of a pretty good concept than it needed to be. The OS running in dock mode is way too slow. They would have been better served by letting Android run on the dock instead of another variation of Linux and/or possibly waiting until Honeycomb was fully released at some point so that it could run both on the phone and the dock, or they could have waited to release the entire setup until the Ice Cream Sandwich release so that it will be able to benefit from the availability of more tablet sized apps and a more unified small screen to big screen transitional experience.

The Atrix was also too expensive at launch (especially for the laptop dock) and a somewhat poorer execution of a pretty good concept than it needed to be. The OS running in dock mode is way too slow. They would have been better served by letting Android run on the dock instead of another variation of Linux and/or possibly waiting until Honeycomb was fully released at some point so that it could run both on the phone and the dock, or they could have waited to release the entire setup until the Ice Cream Sandwich release so that it will be able to benefit from the availability of more tablet sized apps and a more unified small screen to big screen transitional experience.

That’s not exactly an accurate statement. I’m technically advanced, though I prefer to just use my mobile devices and not spend time tweaking them. Competition is great, there just isn’t any yet ;)

As for the Xoom, it’s simply overpriced – the more cohesive experience for Joe Sixpack (iPad[2]) is cheaper AND has a better reputation as an “elite” device – why would anyone who just wants a tablet buy the Android tablet when the iPad is the same price or cheaper?

Sure, readers of this blog might (I sure would if I was in the market for a tablet), but we’re not the target demographic. Wrong pricing, no sales.

The same applies to the Atrix, of course – with the laptop dock accessory being so prohibitively expensive, the Atrix is just another Tegra2 Android device – and a locked-down one at that.

Thanks, but no thanks – I’ll stick with fully unlockable devices and run my own Webtop over the HDMI out… and buy a cheaper Honeycomb tablet, should the need arise.