View From the Phlipside - Xoom Stupid

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Call this my just being fair commentary.  You see I rag on Apple for this particular failing so it's only fair that I point out when someone else is doing it too.

In this case it is the impulse on the part of a technology company to decide before hand about how I'm going to use their product.  I'm not talking about normal limitations, every technology has boundaries.  Cars are great but they don't fly and they don't act like boats.  This is more in line with say an auto maker deciding that it felt driving in the early morning hours wasn't in your best interest so they designed the car so it wouldn't start between the hours of midnight and 6 AM.  It's a stupid, pointless intervention into how the end user can use the product.  It's a technological "nanny state".  Apple has done it by deciding that despite the fact that Java is a huge part of the way the web works they won't let it run on their products.  It's stupid.

But the folks at Motorola may have finally surpassed Apple for this kind of corporate arrogance.  Their new tablet computer the XOOM was featured in some

Motorola Xoom

Super Bowl advertising.  Tablet computers are the hot item right now and once again everyone is looking up at Apple.  The iPad currently commands something around 80% or more of the market.  The Xoom will apparently debut at the high end of the price range for this market which doesn't strike me as the brightest move of all time.  But it's the fine print that is truly outrageous.  In order to activate the WiFi on your new Xoom you will be required to buy a minimum of one month's data plan from Verizon.  FOR YOUR WIFI.

WiFi, which doesn't even use the Verizon network.  WiFi, which connects your some other service for your internet connection without ever even sniffing Verizon.

Assuming that they'd sell you a Xoom without the WiFi activation, which I doubt, you'd end up with a tablet computer that was incapable of connecting you to the web.  In this day and age we're talking about an almost totally useless device.  All so they can squeeze and extra $30 out of you for a function that should be considered base equipment.  It's unbelievable and it's likely going to cripple sales of the device.

Going back to our car analogy let's just say I'd rather walk.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2011