“Xoom” To Give Way To “XYBoard”?

The Xoom hasn’t been the big hit everyone was hoping for. After an inauspicious debut marked by bugs, a lack of Honeycomb apps, and a non-functioning SD card slot, the big debut tablet from Motorola was quickly superseded by other devices, in some cases cheaper or better Honeycomb tablets, and in others more use-specific devices like the Nook Color.

It’s no surprise, then, that the Xoom brand might be getting a revamp. But what happens when the cure is worse than the disease? XYBoard happens.

Yes, it seems that Verizon may be rebranding their Droid-related line of tablets with this recently-trademarked moniker, a mishmash of “cyborg” and “board,” with the already questionable X/Z switcheroo of the Xoom. It’s a case of being too clever by half, and I don’t think customers are going to like it.

The tablets themselves look stylish and powerful, not that those things guarantee sales, and were announced a couple weeks ago as the Xoom 2 and Xoom 2 Media Edition, but it wouldn’t be the first time a device was completely rebranded for certain markets. It’s actually a fairly common practice for some reason.

This is all speculation, of course, but hopefully it’s not true. The Xoom may not have been a blockbuster device, but people at least know the name and associate it with tablets and Android. XYBoard is a groaner — let’s hope this report is mistaken.