Loving That New Xoom? Get Ready to Ship it Away.

[Craig Horlacher]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.droid-life.com/2011/02/23/official-details-of-the-4g-lte-upgrade-process-for-the-motorola-xoom/' target='_blank'>http://www.droid-life.com/2011/02/2...-motorola-xoom/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"As expected, the upgrade will be free to everyone and will be available approximately<strong> 90 days</strong> after launch, so we&rsquo;re looking at May before this thing will be cooking up those 4G speeds. &nbsp;And as we were told by Motorola at CES, you will have to send in your device and will be without it for<strong> 6 days</strong> while they upgrade the hardware and software."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/adt/auto/1298746542.usr309.jpg" style="border: 0;" /></p><p>This is different and would be very annoying if you didn't realize it at the time of purchase I think.&nbsp; The Motorola Xoom will need to be sent away for a week to receive the 4G LTE upgrade.&nbsp; At least it will not cost you any shipping fees but it's still an inconvenience and possibly a big one.&nbsp; You can get <a href="http://www.verizonwireless.com/Xoom4GLTEUpgrade" target="_blank">details about the upgrade process here</a>.</p><p>I think the Xoom seems like an excellent tablet.&nbsp; You do need to wonder if they released it a little early.&nbsp; This is the third significant feature I'm aware of that will not be enabled if you buy it now.&nbsp; Those features are Flash (though I think this is due to Adobe more than Motorola), the MicroSDHC (or will it be XC?) card slot, and 4G LTE.&nbsp; Do you think Motorola should have waited to release the Xoom?&nbsp; What are your thoughts on the ship to upgrade process?&nbsp; If you have a Xoom are you happy with it?</p>

[Jon Westfall]

Those features are Flash (though I think this is due to Adobe more than Motorola),

Did I miss something? (entirely possible) - what makes you think it's Adobe over Moto? I mean, Flash is available on other tablets right now, so is it the 2.3 -> 3.0 jump that has you concerned?

Jon.

[Craig Horlacher]

Did I miss something? (entirely possible) - what makes you think it's Adobe over Moto? I mean, Flash is available on other tablets right now, so is it the 2.3 -> 3.0 jump that has you concerned?

Jon.
I've seen in a few places that Adobe is working to finish Flash for Honeycomb - so yes, Flash is still being polished for 3.0 apparently. It was still Moto's choice to release the Xoom before Flash was ready. I'll try to find a reference or two where I saw that. I think it's possible that Adobe told Moto they would have Flash ready in time for the launch date when the launch date was picked but that's just my guess - I haven't read that specifically.

I don't think there are any production Android tablets with Honeycomb that have Flash. I'm pretty sure the Xoom is still the only released Android tablet that has Honeycomb.

Still Moto went ahead and released the Xoom without Flash, without MicroSD support, and without 4G. I guess it's up to consumers if they want to buy early and trust the upgrades will come out. With these three items it seems like the probability is extremely high. I guess the question of when may be bigger.

[Jason Dunn]

Thanks totally and utterly ridiculous - I'd guess that at least 50% of people will never send it in. Seems like a bait and switch to me - I don't recall Motorola mentioning a hardware upgrade, they kept it vague and made it sound like a software update.