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With all this talk of the iPad 2, it can be easy to forget that the Motorola Xoom is on the market and being met with some pretty decent reviews. While the Xoom itself will eventually support 4G LTE service on Verizon, as of now it doesn’t. Some Xoom owners out there may not want to wait for the LTE upgrade before rooting the device to install custom software.
You have nothing to fear.
Motorola and Verizon have confirmed that ALL Verizon-branded Xoom devices will qualify for the LTE upgrade, regardless of whether or not they’ve been rooted, hacked or otherwise moded.
It’s not all fun and games, though. For your rooted Xoom to qualify for an upgrade, you have to reinstall Android 3.0 on the device, and relock it to guarantee that the upgrade will work. If not, well…
For devices that are returned unlocked, Motorola will attempt to complete the upgrade, but may be unable to update the software. In these cases, the device will be returned to the consumer with just the 4G LTE modem installed.
This should make a lot of Xoom owners very happy. I, however, will remain envious of Xoom owners not for their new hardware, but for the fact that they have between $600 and $800 to burn on a tablet.
