Updating the Xoom to 4 G: because it is not easy

It is not easy--update on Motorola 4 G Xoom and teardowns expose the root cause for the upgrade process.

Verizon rolled out the Tablet Xoom--one of the first major rivals to Apple iPad--this week and is now selling and at shops nationwide. One of the outlets of Xoom is its LTE 4 G upgrade. But there is a catch block.

That captures can be found in the form of an asterisk, which leads to a page full of ugly instructions. To consumers is not a pretty picture. After that it becomes obvious that Verizon and Motorola does not offer hardware 4 G software upgradeable in Xoom, consumers are sent to a page with the above set of instructions that require, among the things that users give their Xoom for six days.

So what is the root cause of all these problems? After removing the Xoom and slip back an "internal" Panel, delete this virtuoso iFixit says that exposes "a mysterious circuit board" that can be exchanged for a table 4 g. Ay, there's the rub. An entire circuit must be replaced.

And IHS iSuppli, which also took over the Xoom, adds his two cents: "There were not 4 G components found in Tablet Xoom apart from a fictitious miniPCIe tab--a placeholder course for the future LTE update. However, Motorola has provided two MIMO antennas and one SIM card slot in preparation for the LTE upgrade. "

"Mysterious" dummy printed circuit board that can be replaced with a border of 4 G--but consumers must go through a process that is twisted to make this happen. (Credit: iFixit)

This makes Xoom a tablet. On the contrary. It has a lot going for it, including a slim 1.6-pound, a 10.1 inch display 1280 x 800 pixels, an interface to Google Android 3.0 snappy, a dual core processor from Nvidia and the Verizon network. In general, it is "technically ... a more powerful, more capable Apple iPad," according to the CNET review.

It's just that the update feature 4 G seems to be an exercise in aggressive advertising that sets consumers for a rude surprise.

When contacted, a Verizon representative didn't had no comment beyond saying that the change was a hardware, software, update.