Motorola to upgrade all Xoom tablets for 4G LTE support, even if rooted

Owners of the recently released Motorola Xoom will notice that the device does not currently support 4G service with Verizon Wireless. Earlier this week, however, Motorola announced that owners can send the Xoom back to the manufacturer for a free 4G LTE modem upgrade. Originally, the tablets must be in official firmware to receive the hardware upgrade, but Motorola now had a change of heart regarding the matter.

A forum manager for Motorola’s official support site has revealed that the company will accept all Xooms for the free 4G LTE hardware upgrade, even if rooted or otherwise tampered with. This is especially surprising as companies tend to denounce users who have unlocked or meddled with smartphone software.

Regardless, Motorola still suggests sending in Xooms locked with official firmware for a higher chance of successful 4G LTE installation. A rooted phone could possibly conflict with the 4G software portion of the update, but Motorola will install the necessary hardware for those users nonetheless.

Exactly why the Xoom tablets shipped without 4G support is unknown, but Electronista predicts that the company rushed the product in order to launch before the official release of the iPad 2. Future Xooms, however, will thankfully ship with 4G right out of the box. Now Motorola just has to solve the whole naming dilemma.

Source(s)