Motorola plays '4G' card to justify Xoom tablet price

OWN THROAT SLASHING mobile phone maker Motorola has defended the sky-high price of its Xoom tablet by playing the '4G' card.

How can anything possibly be more expensive than over-priced Ithings? That was the question Motorola's executives were faced with when the company announced the $800 price tag of its Xoom tablet. The answer, it seems, was to justify the cost in these cash strapped times by claiming that the Xoom tablet is '4G' compatible in the US on Verizon's network.

The Motorola Mobility executive in question, CEO Sanjay Jha, gave the answer to an assortment of hacks at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

"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," he said.

"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," Jha added.

Of course, $800 buys the premium Xoom experience as marketing dweebs love to say and it will be scaled over several price points in different countries. However, that still leaves it priced $30 higher than a 3G, 32GB Ipad on Verizon.

Jha didn't finish there, either. While telling the assembled hacks what features we'll see on the Xoom he accidentally let slip that it will support Google's still unannounced music service. After name-dropping Google, he added, "There will be music service, there will be video service." µ