Motorola Xoom ad 'inspired' by Apple's classic 1984 ad
Motorola has just released a commercial for its Xoom tablet that seems to draw heavy inspiration from Apple's classic 1984 ad. In Motorola's spot, a single Xoom user roams through a sterile environment populated with hundreds of people clothed in the same monochrome, drab garments. Everyone except the Xoom user trudges along placidly with blank expressions and white earbuds dangling from their ears. Upon seeing a Xoom in action ("all screen images simulated" of course), a woman's expression brightens, and she removes her earbuds.
Oh, ha ha, Motorola. Ten out of ten for style, but minus several million for good thinking. Henry Blodget puts it in perspective.
Just like most of the other "me-too" tablets that have come out over the past couple months, the Motorola Xoom pretty clearly drew design inspiration from the iPad, so it's not particularly surprising that the company's commercial is also drawing "inspiration" from Apple's iconic 1984 ad. The real question here is whether anyone will care. The Motorola Xoom is US$799 for a 3G-enabled tablet with 32 GB of storage, only $30 less than an iPad with twice as much storage and access to far more applications than are currently available on the Android platform. As Engadget noted with a Best Buy ad leak earlier tonight and some of our commenters have reiterated, you can't even enable Wi-Fi on the Xoom without chipping in for at least a month of 3G service.
Even so, I'm sure the Android Army will be happy to tell me why the Xoom is inherently "better" than the iPad. Here's the thing, though: just like all the other tablets out there, the Xoom is competing against last year's iPad, and it's competing based on specs rather than user experience. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that not a whole lot of people are going to be ditching their white hoodies and iPads for a snazzy sweater vest and a Xoom.
Check out the video below, then hurry to your nearest Best Buy to get in front of what I'm sure will be insanely long lines* for Motorola's device.
[via Engadget]
*lines may not actually be insanely long
