The Motorola Xoom 10.1-inch touchscreen tablet will cost US$700 when it first appears on Feb. 17, according to leaked documents and an unnamed Engadget.com source.
The Xoom runs Android 3.0 , or Honeycomb, which is maximized for tablets.
The $700 version of Motorola’s device will have 32 GB of onboard storage, according a photo of the leaked documents. By comparison, a 3G wireless enabled 9.7-inch iPad with 32 GB storage sells for $729.
Some bloggers have theorized the Xoom will not come with a contract. Verizon, which will sell the Xoom, already offers five different tiers of month-by-month data service for the 7-inch Galaxy Tab, could offer the same tiers for the Xoom.
Verizon had said earlier this month at the International Consumer Electronics Show that Xoom would launch in the first quarter on 3G and Wi-Fi. The company said users would be able to upgrade to 4G LTE in the second quarter. Motorola Mobility announced at CES that Xoom will be available as a 4G LTE/Wi-Fi-ready device in the second quarter.
February will be a busy month for new tablets, as Hewlett-Packard is expected to unveil one or two tablets on WebOS Feb. 9, while Sprint could discuss more details about the BlackBerry PlayBook on Feb. 7, analysts say . Motorola’s dual-core Tegra 2 Xoom tablet runs Android 3.0, the first version specifally designed for tablets.