Motorola’s Xoom tablet to ship without Adobe Flash

Motorola’s latest entry into the tablet wars won’t have Adobe Flash for the first few weeks after it is released, according to Verizon’s landing page for the device.

The announcement was basically buried at the bottom of a banner ad for the device that indicates Flash will arrive “Spring 2011.” That means Motorola’s Xoom tablet, which is powered by Google’s Android mobile operating system, will ship without a feature that is widely seen as a differentiating factor between the iPad and Android-powered tablets.

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Flash has been a bit of a sore point between Apple and Google throughout the tablet wars. Google has supported Flash applications on its Android operating system, while Apple has publicly decried the software as inefficient and a battery hog — something that’s not welcome on its mobile devices. So it’s a little strange to see Motorola making this move when Flash seems to be a selling point for some Android-powered devices.

Motorola is waiting for the next version of Flash for mobile devices, version 10.2, before it enables Flash on its tablet computers, according to Engadget. That version is set to ship in a few weeks and is supposed to be more energy-efficient because it uses fewer processor cycles to run Flash-based content. So it could be a quality-check for Motorola’s tablet, which the company hopes will be able to go toe-to-toe with the iPad.

The company recently announced that a wi-fi version of its Xoom tablet computer would cost around $600 and launch on February 24 — making it comparable with the iPad’s pricing.