The Xoom was Android's first iPad rival — priced above the iPad and it sank

In early 2011 Motorola launched the Xoom, the first tablet to run Android 3.0 Honeycomb — Google's answer to the dominant iPad. Reviewers praised its hardware, but the launch pricing drew criticism because it cost more than the iPad 2 it was meant to beat.

The Xoom shipped at $799 with 3G, and even the Wi-Fi version at $499 topped Apple's comparable model. A tablet running an ecosystem that was still thin, priced above the market leader, had little to offer beyond early adopters and Android loyalists.

After a start of roughly 250,000 units shipped in Q1 2011 and 440,000 in Q2, sales fell off a cliff — 100,000 in Q3. Price cuts in July 2011 failed to change the story, and by Q1 2012 shipments were back around 100,000.

Motorola replaced the Xoom with the Xyboard before the year was out. The first serious Android tablet had proved that hardware praise meant nothing when the price and the apps both trailed the iPad.