JOIN USAlong with being declared the top creation at the dazzling gadget extravaganza, Xoom was also honoured yesterday as the best of the scores of tablets introduced here as fresh competitors in a market dominated by Apple iPads.
Motorola also scored a victory with its Atrix smartphone designed to work with high-speed 4G wireless networks and which can be used in a dock to power a laptop. Atrix won the top spot in a smartphone category at the official Best of CES awards.
"We took big risks and they paid off," said Motorola Mobility chief software engineer Seang Chau. "We didn't know if people would get it; but obviously they got it." US telecom maker Motorola Mobility jumped into the bustling tablet computer market Wednesday when chief executive Sanjay Jha unveiled Xoom at CES.
Motorola Mobility's hotly awaited tablet computer, the "Xoom," will be available in the first quarter of the year, Jha said. With a 10.1-inch (25.6-centimeter) screen, the Xoom is about the same size as Apple's iPad, which hit stores in April and has other leading technology companies around the world scrambling to catch up.
Xoom will be a fierce competitor in the marketplace because Google built Honeycomb software specifically to power tablet computers, according to Jha. "This is really the next generation of tablets," Motorola Mobility device team head Alain Mutricy said as he held a Xoom in one hand at the awards ceremony.
"Our partnership with Google has been very intense and has enabled some great technology."