There were plenty of tablets at the Consumer Electronics Show last week, but few were as compelling as Motorola&'s upcoming flagship Android tablet, the Xoom.
It was clearly the strongest Android tablet at the show (among a sea of many), and the one I bet will give the iPad a run for its money this year &8212' especially since it&'s also the first tablet to run on Verizon&'s LTE 4G network. It comes as no surprise to hear that Motorola may be aiming to ship 1 million Xooms in the first quarter of 2011.
As you&'ll see in the video demonstration below, the combination of Google&'s tablet-friendly Android 3.0 OS and the Xoom&'s gorgeous 10.1-inch screen makes for a tasty treat. While the demonstration wasn&'t live, the Motorola representative said it was a recording of the Xoom being used in real-time.
The demo cycles through much of what Android 3.0 will bring to all Android tablets this year &8212' a revamped user interface, better Gmail support, improved Google Maps, Google Talk video chat and more. It&'s also connected to a large computer display, showing off the Xoom&'s HDMI video output.
Additionally, the Motorola representative said that the company would find some way to feature tablet-optimized apps in the Android Market. I&'m not sure if this implies a tablet-specific section in the Market, or a separate app market just for the Xoom. I suspect that with the proliferation of more Android tablets, Google will find some way to find apps that will run better on their larger screens &8212' a problem that owners of Samsung&'s Galaxy Tab are currently facing.
The Xoom&'s release date and price still haven&'t been announced. We expect it to land within the next few months and for it to be competitive with the pricing of the iPad and other Android tablets.
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Companies: Google, motorola
Companies: Google, motorola
Devindra Hardawar is VentureBeat's lead mobile writer and East Coast correspondent. He studied philosophy at Amherst College, worked in IT support for several years, and has been writing about technology since 2004. He now lives in Brooklyn, New York. You can reach him at devindra@venturebeat.com (all story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com), and on Twitter at @Devindra.
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