Despite passionate opinion otherwise, some of us here at Unplggd are very interested with progress and features of the Android platform (though our readership seems to veer strongly one way according to this open poll). You see, what's exciting now is we've got two major developing operating systems vying for market dominance, specifically on mobile devices like smart phones and tablets. And on that note, one of the most promising devices we saw at CES this year was the Motorola Xoom, sparking much talk amongst Android followers about a viable alternative for those who didn't want anything with "i" in front of its name. You may want to wait a little longer...

Although the Xoom garnered much praise and hype at this year's CES, I remember taking all the marketing hyperbole on the show floor with a grain of salt, knowing a device at a tradeshow is rarely the device we get once released into the wild. And although the Android OS for tablets, codenamed Honeycomb, is a promising start, this beautifully in depth review of the Motorola Xoom over at Arstechnica outlines many reasons why you might want to just wait a little longer for Google's push into tablets to ferment into something more polished.

Ars reviewer, Ryan Paul:

My experience with the Xoom feels like a similar situation. The product has an extraordinary set of features, but the best are simply not available at launch. While I was testing the device and studying the documentation, I was confronted repeatedly with disclaimers which explained that various features will arrive later in updates. There are so many of these disclaimers that it soon became absurd. The device, in its current state, is like a parade of promising placeholders.

Comments from other Xoom users seem to mirror many of the criticisms and notes made about the devices potential, but shortfalls of actual delivered features, with too much mention of "eventually" (the most ironic is the inability to play Flash files and the crippled, unoptimized browser). Does this mean Android for tablets is DOA? Hardly...if history repeats itself, it seems this is just the 1st salvo from Google and licensing manufacturers, with Android likely to overtake the iPad by sheer numbers within several years (the optimistic may think sooner). But the review makes for an insightful read why the Android platform has yet to be adopted by non-tech types and by the mainstream for now. Here's to the hopes of a better Xoom 2.0.

More at Ars reviews the Motorola Xoom by Ryan Paul.