Motorola Mobility Holdings (NYSE:MMI) announced Wednesday the launch of a new WiFi-only version of its Xoom tablet, which will be available in stores March 27th.
Priced at $599, the product will compete with Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad 2 WiFi-only device initially priced at $499. The cheaper WiFi-only device is the more popular of the 2 iPad versions. Apple's 3G iPad 2 is priced initially at $629, while Motorola's 3G Xoom prices start at $799.
Looking more closely, however, shows Motorola's Xoom priced more competitively than initially realized. Both Xoom devices have 32 GB standard, meaning the comparable WiFi-only device is priced identically to the iPad 2 at $599, because the iPad 2 only comes with 16 GB standard. Similarly, the comparable iPad 2 3G device with 32 GB is $729, closer to the Xoom 3G price of $799.
MMI is trading up 2.73% at $24.10 per share.