Motorola today revealed its new Android-based Xoom tablet, which the company hopes will dethrone Apple’s iPad in this fast-growing market segment.
The Xoom betters the iPad in some ways–it comes standard with front- and rear-facing cameras, including one that can record in HD, compared with none in the current version of the iPad. It also boasts a larger screen with a higher resolution, supports Adobe Flash, and uses Verizon’s network instead of AT&T’s.
Motorola Xoom tablet
(Credit: Motorola.com)
It will become the first device to run the latest version of Google’s Android operating system, known as Honeycomb. The operating system supports multitasking and has been designed explicitly for tablets.
Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha told reporters at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this afternoon that the device will be available in stores in the first quarter of 2011 in 3G form. All of the 3G Xooms “are capable” of being upgraded to 4G later this year, he said.
Jha didn’t announce how much the device will cost and Motorola ended the event without taking questions from reporters.
This will be “the most competitive product in the marketplace,” Jha predicted. (Motorola recently split into two publicly traded companies, Motorola Mobility Holdings and Motorola Solutions.)
The Xoom (pronounced “zoom”) will operate on Verizon Wireless’ network and be upgradeable to 4G LTE in the second quarter of the year, with units sold thereafter including 4G by default. It was not immediately clear if a Wi-Fi-only version would be available, but the companies’ statement appeared to indicate it would not be, and the photos of the tablet show a Verizon logo on the top right corner.
