Motorola + Verizon = Android 2.2 (Froyo) Tablet sometime this autumn ?

A few months ago, every single company in the IT industry wanted in on what we called the “tablet frenzy”. It seems that things cooled down for a while, with a lot less buzz being made. Meanwhile, Apple’s iPad got the great results they deserved for believing that their tablet will be a success even if there was no market for such a device.

But it seems the war is not over even though Apple was the only player in the first battle. While we previously mentioned Cisco’s plans to enter the tablet market with the Cius tablet, now it’s time for Motorola and Verizon to step up.

Financial Times reports that Motorola and Verizon are working on a 10-inch, flash-ready tablet device based on Google’s Android OS. As far as everyone was able to figure out, it seems that the Motorola-Verizon tablet will be running Android 2.2 (FroYo) and, although it is not actually a new OS, it is still from many expert points of view, the best operating system for mobile devices at the moment. Rumor goes that the tablet could be used with Verizon’s FiOS TV service (that’s live TV on your tablet) and that we’ll be able to use it as a hotspot for WiFi devices within range. Although a “this autumn” release date is rumored, no word was leaked on the pricing.

If everything goes as it should (meaning, Motorola and Verizon won’t mess this one up), this might be the tabled device a lot of people are waiting for. But let’s not get our hopes up: this is still a rumor and even if it is true, there’s a long way to go before the iPad is dethroned (or even competed against for that matter).