3:50 PM -- Motorola Mobility LLC has only/already sold 100,000 Xoom tablets in its first six weeks on the scene. Which adverb you choose has a big effect on how you interpret these figures, released today by Deutsche Bank AG .

The numbers are just a rough estimate, determined by the number of people using Android 3.0, Honeycomb, which is only on the Xoom today. They do, however, already have many calling the Xoom a "flop," because Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL)'s original iPad sold 300,000 in its first day.

You can't blame everyone for comparing the Xoom to Apple's golden child -- it was made to emulate it. But it may not ever emulate its success, regardless of how good its hardware or software is. (See CTIA 2011: Xoom Takes On the iPad 2 and Android Cheat Sheet: How to Beat the iPad 2.)

Tablets, as a category, are only just over a year old. Given the newness, 100,000 may prove to be great in this market. Eventually, Android tablets, as a whole, will likely surpass the iPad in sales by virtue of having many form factors, operator partners, and manufacturers to choose from.

But, I don't see any one tablet in the foreseeable future beating the iPad on its own, especially a tablet like the Xoom that is more expensive and running a new, and still buggy, operating system. (See Tablet Wars: Who's Xooming Whom?)

Does that make it a flop? Not really. In the tablet world, it's a race for second place.

Light Reading Editor in Chief Phil Harvey and I compared the merits of the iPad and Xoom at CTIA . Here's the video.

— Sarah Reedy, Senior Reporter, Light Reading Mobile