No Flash and a Bagful of Coffin Nails for Xoom

Feels like only yesterday we were all rooting for Motorola’s Xoom to deal some damage to (or at least share some of the market with) the iPad. The Xoom looked – and, to be honest, still looks – like a decent piece of hardware. I, for one, would still be proud to sport it about the town in a man-purse, whipping it out at a fancy coffee bar while I slurp down a beverage with a sentence-long name.

Of course, once it was revealed that the Xoom would in fact cost more than the most comparable iPad model, people began singing a different tune. 800 bucks is not worth a tablet of the Xoom’s capabilities. Or, in this case, lack thereof:

The Xoom doesn’t have Flash.

Okay, so it’s not like the Xoom will never support Flash, it’s just not going to have it right away – and as Flash is pretty much unquestionably a must-have feature of any would-be iPad killer, it’s gonna be tough for the Xoom to do any out-of-the-box killing, whatever the price tag.

Adobe’s best efforts should see Flash optimized for Android devices by spring’s end, but by then it’s entirely likely it could be too late for Xoom. 800 bucks and no initial Flash support? The search for a viable iPad killer continues.