That public perception over the rushed-to-market Xoom has affected the perception of every other Android tablet released on Honeycomb since.

In particular, the tech industry started reporting negatively on Honeycomb right away, and in large volume, mostly based on the Xoom and Samsung Galaxy Tab. Both were priced poorly to compete with the iPad. The Xoom compounded those problems by not being ready for market and for dragging their feet in releasing updates until far after compelling alternatives had been released that came with functional features that Motorola had still not delivered to their early adopters.

It is a "Microsoft Vista" effect. I've seen lots of tablets that didn't have insanely stupid fundamental flaws released since the Xoom - but consumers have heard two things:

The Xoom was overpriced and feature crippled and Honeycomb was a mess.

The rest of the Android tablets are all "fundamentally the same design, OS, and hardware specs as the Xoom - even if they're starting to be priced more reasonably".

Between Motorola and Samsung rushing to market with overpriced devices that weren't quite ready for release, and the resulting bad press - consumers have turned their back on some recent Honeycomb based Android tablets that offer a very compelling set of fully-baked features for very reasonable prices.

We'll see what happens during the Christmas shopping season and sales.

I'm reserved about the Amazon Kindle. Even if it sells huge - I don't think that is a victory for ANDROID tablets. It is a victory for Amazon over Apple in developing their own tightly controlled ecosystems and walled gardens that strip most of the benefits of Android away to deliver a locked down consumer-friendly experience. The Kindle Fire isn't really an Android tablet as it ships - and it remains to be seen if it can be rooted to be made *into* an Android tablet. If not, the Nook color is a better Android tablet than the Fire.