During the Super Bowl, Motorola will air an advertisement for the Xoom tablet, one of the iPad's more recent challengers. The Xoom ad is called "Goodbye 1984" and is full of references to Apple's first-ever Macintosh ad, which ran during the 1984 Super Bowl.
"2011 looks a lot like 1984," begins the Xoom ad. We're shown a digital image of the rotating Earth, wearing a pair of what appear to be Apple's earbuds. The commercial proceeds to criticize Apple's "closed" ecosystem.
"One authority, one design, one way to work," the ad continues. "It's time for more choices." Then, several of the Xoom's featured specs flash before the viewers' eyes: Dual-core 1GHz processor, 1080p HD video playback, 3G upgradeable to 4G, Android 3.0 Honeycomb and Adobe Flash Player, dual cameras and more. "It's time to live a free life," the ad concludes.
Apple's iconic "1984" advertisement presented a colorless, dystopian society, whose brainwashed automatons waited on a savior (in this case, the Macintosh computer) to shatter their world and set them free. Writes Computer World, "Apple itself was attacking a Big Brother image, explained by CEO Steve Jobs as IBM -- 'IBM wants it all,' he said at the time. But many viewers saw the ad as a shot at Microsoft, which made software running on IBM PCs." But today, Apple dominates the market, and the iPad is king among tablets. "Apple is the industry behemoth with a market capitalization in excess of $300 billion, which is not only higher than IBM's, but higher than that of any other company in the world, save ExxonMobil," Mashable notes.
Motorola's new ad has thrown down the gauntlet by angling for the underdog appeal. It'll be interesting to watch how the duel with Apple unfolds--if the Cupertino company chooses to respond.
Engadget recently reported, via an internal document leaked from Best Buy, that the Xoom is scheduled for a February 17 release and will carry a $700 price tag.
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