Xoom

Seven 'Xoom' stories July 2011 - July 2012

Motorola Xoom does not violate iPad design patent, rules German court

Élyse Betters Jul 17 2012 - 8:29 am PT

A German court ruled this morning that the Android-powered tablet does not violate the patented look of Apple’s tablet. The Duesseldorf court discarded one claim by the Google-owned manufacturer, however, about the iPad’s design patent being inapplicable.

FoxBusiness explained:

Apple initially sued Motorola for allegedly infringing three iPad designs with the Xoom. It sought to have the device banned across Europe.

Although the judges ruled Motorola’s Xoom doesn’t infringe on the iPad, the court rejected a counterclaim brought by Motorola alleging the iPad’s design patent is invalid, a spokesman for the court said.

As the court ultimately rejected both parties’ claims, it ordered Apple to pay two-thirds of costs and Motorola to pay a third, the spokesman added.

[…] During two hearings prior to the ruling, the presiding judge had indicated the court was leaning in Motorola’s favor. Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann said in March that the court considered the evenly bent back and shaped edges on the front of the Xoom tablet sufficient to give the product individual character.

Apple is also suing Motorola in a Mannheim court for allegedly breaching a patent on multi-touch enabled devices.

Get the full report at FoxBusiness.

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Motorola Xoom 2 hitting the market before the holidays, priced at 400 euros

Jake Smith Nov 1 2011 - 3:09 pm PT

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A flier from Carphone Warehouse confirms the Motorola Xoom 2 will be hitting the market before the holidays, Engadget found. Motorola’s next tablet, a successor to the original Xoom, will land for 400 euros with Wi-Fi and 16GB of storage packed in (presumably there’ll be a 32GB version too).

The flier touts the Xoom 2 having an 8.2-inch touchscreen, Android 3.2 (no ICS!), Wi-Fi, and tethering. There’s no word on U.S. availability, but more information will most likely come out about that soon.

Woot! Motorola XOOM tablet is $339 today only

9to5 Staff Oct 20 2011 - 12:36 am PT

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From 9to5toys.com:

Woot! via Amazon has the 32GB Motorola XOOM Android Tablet for $339.99. That’s 32% off and the lowest price we could find for this refurbished item.

Andy Rubin told the audience at AllThingsD in Asia that the XOOM would be the first tablet to be upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich later this year.
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Analyst estimates less than 4 million Honeycomb tablets sold

Jake Smith Oct 15 2011 - 2:22 pm PT

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During their earnings call Thursday, Google announced that there have been 190 million Android handsets activated. Interestingly, if you look at the numbers on Android’s Developer page, 1.5% of all devices that accessed the market within the last 30 days are running Honeycomb — the almost exclusive OS for Android tablets (well, excluding a few million Samsung Galaxy Tab 7s and other tablets running 2.x Android). So, if all 190 million of those devices accessed the market in the last 30 days, that leaves only 3.4 million Honeycomb tablets on the market if you do the math. Ouch..

With all of the numbers added up, it’s indicating that Android still has some catch up to do against the big Apple when it comes to tablets. Perhaps Ice Cream Sandwich will help with that.
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Non-Apple tablet sales expected to rise 134% in 2012

Jake Smith Aug 8 2011 - 8:52 am PT

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A new report from Digitimes says non-Apple tablet sales are expected to rise a solid 134% in 2012, higher than Apple’s projected growth rate for the same period. For 2011, the sale of Android tablets are expected to top 19-20 million units and the iPad’s expected to hit 35-36 million units. With the 134% rise this mean there could be 44-45 million Android units sold in 2012 and 54-55 million iPad units sold in 2012 — perhaps marginalizing Apple’s lead.

To help push Android (and others) to parity, many manufacturers will be releasing new hardware in the upcoming months, like Nvidia’s Kal-El quadcore processor slated for later this fall. On the software front, Google is expected to release Ice Cream Sandwich(Android 4.0) late fall or early 2012. With competition heating up, prices are already beginning to fall.

Who said 2011 was the year of the tablet? Just wait for 2012.
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Rumor: “Motorola KORE” could be a new Quad-core Kal-El Honeycomb Android tablet

Jordan Kahn Aug 5 2011 - 11:40 am PT

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A report from Fusible shows Motorola has been acquiring domains names, five in total, each related to the “Kore” moniker. The domain names listed include MotorolaKore.com, KoreMotorola.com, Moto-Kore.com, MotoKore.com and Motorola-Kore.com

Of course speculation that Kore may be the successor to the Xoom, which recently received a price cut, at this point is just that.We told you about a leaked Verizon document that suggests Motorola is still planning on launching the LTE Xoom in early September despite less than spectacular sales, so we aren’t holding our breath for a new tablet before then.

Rumor has it the Kore device will have a 4:3 aspect ratio, but that is pretty much a given if it plans to take on its competition. There is still always the possibility the Kore could be a new smartphone, rather than a tablet.

If it is a tablet it could be the first running Nvidia’s Kal-El Quad core processor (demo below).

We’ll keep you posted as more becomes available.

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Android Honeycomb 3.2 due this month, Motorola’s Xoom gets it first

9to5 Staff Jul 15 2011 - 9:23 am PT

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According to “industry sources” who spoke to Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes, Google is about to release Android Honeycomb 3.2 to select tablet makers at the end of July or early August:

Google is expected to release its Android 3.2 OS to production partners at the end of July or early August, according to industry sources. Asustek has indicated it will launch Android 3.2-based tablets soon, while Huawei Technologies also said it will roll out a 7-inch Android 3.2 tablet in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, CNET confirms that Google is already pushing out the Honeycomb 3.2 update to the Motorola Xoom, hoping to bring the software to other tablets “in the near future”.

Android 3.2 is a minor update that will improve hardware acceleration and bring optimization for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors that power many top-selling Android smartphones and tablets. The software update will also bring improvements in Google-created apps, including Movie Studio, Movies, Music and Widget. It will also have a new compatibility mode for apps called zoom-to-fill. “Imagine viewing your app at the size of a phone screen then zooming in about 200 percent,” Google explains on the Android Developers blog. And as we explained earlier, this Honeycomb version also takes into account the popular seven-inch tablet form factor, which continues to be in abundance…

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