Xoom sales 'off to good start': Motorola CEO

Motorola Mobility chairman and chief executive Sanjay Jha said Monday that the US telecom maker is pleased with early sales of the Xoom, its rival to Apple's iPad.

"They're off to a good start," Jha said of sales of the Xoom, which is available through Verizon Wireless since Thursday with a price tag of between $600 and $800.

Jha, speaking to financial analysts at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference here, did not provide any figures for sales of the Xoom.

The Motorola Mobility chief also said the arrival of the iPhone in Verizon stores has had the expected impact on sales of Motorola handsets.

"We were comforted by the fact that things weren't worse than we had predicted," he said.

Verizon began selling the iPhone in February, ending AT&T's monopoly on the device.

Jha said that in any case he expected the United States would increasingly account for less of Motorola Mobility's revenue as the company looks abroad.

US revenue currently accounts for 75 percent of the firm's revenue.

Jha said Motorola Mobility was looking to increase its market share in China.

"Last year we sold two million smartphones in China," he said. "We want to substantially improve that."

The Xoom is the first tablet computer on the market powered by "Honeycomb" software crafted specifically for such devices by Internet powerhouse Google and has been heralded as a viable challenger to Apple's market-ruling iPad.

The Xoom will be sold for $800, but the price will be trimmed to $600 for those who opt for two-year service contracts with Verizon.