As I've said before, to each his own - so whatever someone is happy with, more power to them. But, with Apple, it's not about a list of features - it's about how well it does what it does. How intuitive it is. The reality that it just works - wel. How efficient it is. The fit and finish. The smoothness. The physical sturdiness. The elegance of the industrial design. All sorts of things that are hard to quantify, but easy to appreciate - the things that really matter when the hands meet the devices.
That said, some of what you've said is just not true. The Xoom is not lighter than the iPad 2 and it certainly is not thinner - it is significantly heavier and thicker. It does not claim to have 13 hours of hardcore nonstop use battery life, it claims the same battery life that the iPad 2 does - and my experience has been that the iPad 2 consistently lives up to its claimed battery life. As for Flash capability, I've pointed out elsewhere - I've been able to watch all of the Flash videos I've tried to watch on my iPad. You can also (with an attachment) output HDMI from an iPad - or you can stream HD video out from it.
When it comes to one of the most important aspects of the consideration - the respective apps stores - it is way behind the Apple iPad. Apple's store has tons more tablet apps. The reality is that, for multiple reasons, developers prefer developing apps for the Apple platform. The Android store may eventually catch up, but it is way behind now. Can you stream Netflix on an Android device? No, because Netflix has yet to be able to sort out DRM issues for the more open (and varied) Android operating system. Can you get apps like
this, that exploit the marvelous, content-delivery-revolutionizing nature of this new product class, on Android? No. Is the ops system and apps environment anywhere near as secure for Android? No, and that's why some enterprise customers are hesitant about large scale adoption of Android devices. The number of tablet-designed, high quality games - many free - on the Apps Store is amazing. The reality is that the Xoom does not have everything - all the functionality - that the iPad 2 has and more, just as the iPad 2 doesn't have everything that the Xoom has and more.
Don't get me wrong, I think the Android platform provides a nice alternative to Apple. And, I wouldn't try to talk someone that is happy with those devices out of their happiness. But, the notion that the Xoom is way better than the iPad, in any non-personal-preference sense, is preposterous. What is currently being done with the iPad - e.g. uses that vertical markets are finding for it - is well ahead of similar Android devices.
How many iPads do you think will be sold this year and how many Xooms do you think will be sold? Exactly. I've yet to place my iPad in the hands of someone, and let them play with it for a while, and not have them say 'Wow', or something similar.
