According to several news reports, Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola, said in an investor conference earlier this week that Motorola is planning to jump into the tablet market.

Jha, in a speech to investors, said that Motorola aims to release a tablet that would be "competitive in the marketplace." According to a Wall Street Journal report, Jha hopes that the company can make the tablet available by "early next year." In addition, a CNET report claims that the tablet would be called Everest.

In spite of refraining from revealing details explicitly, Jha hinted that the Motorola tablet could be based on Google Android 3.0, which has the code name "Gingerbread."

Jha made a reference to comments made by Hugo Barra, Google's director of mobile products. Barra was quoted as saying that Android version 2.2 "is not optimized for use on tablets."

Google may release the Android 3.0 by next year. The launch may coincide with the expected release date for the Motorola tablet.

Competitors are taking a different approach. Dell's 5-inch Streak tablet is based on Android 1.6. The Samsung Galaxy Tab, which will run on Android 2.2, is expected to be launched later this year. The company says that the device can be upgraded to Android 3.0 when the OS is released.