It's official - the Android based Xoom is a flop.

According to an estimate from Deutsche Ban only 100,000 of the gizmos have been flogged since launch.  In comparison, Apple sold 300,000 iPads on the first week weekend it was available.

But there are some questions about how the hardware makers are handling the tablet. If it was about the technology, or the actual gizmo itself, it would be very easy for the hardware makers to duplicate. After all it is a netbook with a touch screen.

However the fact hat the Xoom has not done well indicates that this is more about marketing than anything else. If the world was beating itself to get tablets, for functionality, then they would be buying from vendors other than Apple. If they wanted iPads, however, there is no one else that can sell them those other than Jobs Mob.

The hardware makers have made a huge mistake about making and flogging tablets in that they have insisted that they should be the same price as Apple. Apple's gear is really over priced and so the fact that greedy hardware makers thought they could make the same amount of cash from the same thing was incredibly short sighted. They should have been flogging them for about 20 percent above cost price at least until they had carved themselves a decent market share.

Fortunately if it is just about Apple, the tablet will be a fad that will fade in the same way that the iPod did. On its merits it cannot be the game changer that Apple claims.