This year's Super Bowl was heavy on the tech ads, and Motorola used its one-minute commercial to show off the upcoming Xoom tablet - and take a dig at Apple.
In a spot titled "Empower the People," (below) Motorola touted Xoom as "the tablet to create a better world." In the ad, a young guy commutes to work surrounded by fellow travelers who are all dressed in white jumpsuits, plugged in via Apple's familiar white earbuds. The man uses his Xoom to create an animation for his office crush, who is inspired to remove her earbuds and presumbly join the real world.
Motorola provided a preview of its ad late last month with the tagline "2011 Looks a lot like 1984. One Authority. One design. One way to work. It's time for more choices." That was a reference to Apple's iconic "1984" ad, which ran once during the Super Bowl ad in 1984. The ad featured a woman running into a room of people apparently brainwashed by a "Big Brother" figure on a screen; she throws a hammer at the screen, shattering the figure and shocking its viewers out of their stupor. "On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984," an announcer says.
Motorola has not yet officially announced pricing or availability for the Xoom. Last week, a Best Buy store in Grand Rapids posted a note on its Facebook page that said the tablet would be available on February 24, but Best Buy later said that was posted "in error" and it was deleted. Engadget on Sunday, however, said that Best Buy might have revealed more information about the Xoom, pointing to an flyer that confirmed the February 24 release date, with an $800 price tag.
For more, see PCMag's hands on with the Motorola Xoom.
