Despite sluggish sales of the first edition XOOM, Motorola Mobility won't do a Hewlett-Packard-like early exit in the tablet market. It will instead try to challenge Apple's market leading iPad for a second time.

The hardware of the first edition XOOM gained positive reviews, but it failed to gain ground against the iPad. Released in February this year, Motorola has so far SHIPPED less than 1 million units of the XOOM, compared to more than 20 million units of the iPad SOLD by Apple in the same period.

The first XOOM was praised for its sleek 10.1-inch slate, its powerful dual-core processor, 4G support, and an improved interface provided by Android 3.0 Honeycomb. And Motorola had an interesting Super Bowl XLV commercial for the XOOM. But the maker of the RAZR phone fumbled when it priced the Wi-Fi-only version at $599 and the 3G version at $799. The tablet was $100 more expensive than the entry level iPad when at the time the XOOM was launched, the iPad has 90% of the tablet market, and tens of thousands of apps and optimized for the 9.7-inch iPad already available at the Apple App Store and iTunes.

In what it says is "building on the success of Motorola XOOM", Motorola has unveiled in Ireland and the United Kingdom two new tablets. Motorola didn't say when the new tablets will be available in other countries.

Motorola XOOM 2 with Wi-Fi sports a 10.1-inch widescreen HD display and Android 3.2 Honeycomb like its predecessor. But the new tablet's display is brighter and more vibrant than before with colour enhancement, and the edges have been specially flattened to make the tablet more comfortable to hold. Motorola XOOM 2 is loaded with (i) Business Ready features like VPN support and data encryption, and (ii) MOTOPRINT integrated into key apps so you can print wirelessly from your tablet. It is approximately 100 grams lighter (only at 599 grams) than the original Motorola XOOM and has a new splash-guard coating. It also promises 10 hours of video playback.

Motorola XOOM 2 Media Edition with Wi-Fi is the portable version -- it has an 8.2-inch display and weighs 386 grams, less than the "best-selling paperback you've been carrying around." Optimised for entertainment, it has a wide, 178 degree viewing angle. Motorola XOOM 2 Media Edition has a 20 percent improvement in graphics performance over the original Motorola XOOM for smoother gaming, features adaptive virtual surround sound with booming bass, and boasts of the fastest multi-tasking in its class. It can function as a universal remote control for home AV equipment with the personalized, custom remote control app pre-loaded on the tablet. The Media Edition promises 6+ hours of Web usage and more than 3 days of music playback.

The timing of the XOOM 2 is interesting. Android tablets have already gained ground against the iPad, with users of Google's tablet platform now having 20% of the market. Strong sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab and other Android tablets have also enticed third-party developers to create more apps and content. The iPad 2 (512 MB RAM, 1 GHz dual-core processor) is already 7 months old, and the iPad 3 is still months away from release.

But low priced tablets, which likely would not include the XOOM 2, are attacking the market in November. Amazon has unveiled a 7-inch tablet that's available for a mind-blowing $199. Although it doesn't have superior specs, it has been seen as a threat to the iPad given that it's supported by Amazon's cloud infrastructure and deep array of digital content. Lenovo is selling the IdeaPad A1 tablet at $229. The massive success of the $99 fire-sale of the Hewlett-Packard TouchPad has indicated that there is demand for cheap tablets. But it would be unlikely if Motorola would be willing to do an Amazon -- take a loss (or a low margin) from the sale of the device, and get the money back from digital content being sold at Amazon.com or Amazon Market. Motorola has yet to announce pricing for the new tablets.

Although Honeycomb has been upgraded improved and upgraded this year, Motorola could have waited for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for tablets before releasing XOOM 2. Search giant Google Inc. is acquiring Motorola for $12.5 billion but the deal is expected to close early next year. While the design and display have improved, Motorola could have waited for Google to make available Ice Cream Sandwich and provide a more attractive ecosystem for the XOOM. Google has already released Ice Cream Sandwich for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone. ICS is the first Android platform designed to work for both smartphones and tablets.

Motorola has actually announced that the XOOM 2 can be upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich. As the XOOM 2 will be released outside the UK and Ireland at a later date, chances are the XOOM 2 to be sold outside those two countries will have ICS pre-installed.

But for the mean-time, are the boost in specs and better industrial adequate to entice users to abandon the iPad 2 and try out a Honeycomb-based XOOM 2? Probably not.