To argue about the price/features of the Xoom vs iPad is to miss the point (in my opinion). The point is: Do you want to drink the Apple Kool-Aid or have similar functionality but much more freedom with Andriod.
Personally I just won't buy Apple, no matter how much I recognize how good Apple are. I just do not want to be locked into 1 company.
I imagine your feelings run deep enough re: vendor lock-in that you certainly don't own a PS3, Xbox 360 or Wii, right? If you really don't want to be tied to one vendor and you're not also thinking about the biggest "locked-in" platforms on the planet then you're being hypocritical.
The difference, at least for me is that games and gaming isn't really that important, it's a fun indulgence and not much more. If I can't play a certain game or use a certain controller on my PS3, then, so what. If on the other hand my productivity is hampered by the fact that I can't open a specific document, do a particular task or connect a particular peripheral to something I hope to use as a general purpose computing then that is a real problem. So it's not so much vendor lock-in as such, as vendor lock in that adversely affects me and gets in my way.
Consoles aren't attempting to replace general purpose PCs, while Apple has made it clear that they expect and want the majority of users to be using an iOS-like platform in the future. Having personal computing devices switch from open by default to closed by default would be a substantial change for the worse.
Actually I am pleased to admit I do not own a PS3, Xbox 360 or Wii. I play all my games on my PC. Although possibly I am being a bit hypocritical in that I generally use Windows.
Personally I just won't buy Apple, no matter how much I recognize how good Apple are. I just do not want to be locked into 1 company.