Motorola Mobility’s XOOM, one of the first devices to run Google’s Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS, is being made available by Verizon Wireless starting Feb. 24. The tablet won the CNET Best of Show Award, as “the most potentially disruptive technology,” at this year’s CES. The XOOM is available with a two-year contract from Verizon Wireless. Although XOOM is currently available with a 3G data service, it will be upgradeable to 4G LTE at no extra charge when that service becomes available in Q2 2011.
What makes XOOM potentially “disruptive technology”? Featuring a 1GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor and 10.1in widescreen HD display, XOOM makes the most of innovations inherent in the Honeycomb OS, which includes widgets, multitasking, browsing, notifications and customization, the latest Google Mobile services and full support for tabbed browsing and the Adobe Flash Player (to be added in a few weeks, according to Adobe). XOOM also features a front-facing 2-megapixel camera for video chats and a rear-facing 5-megapixel camera that captures 720p HD video.
Motorola also plans to release a WiFi-only version of the XOOM.