For all you happy new Motorola Xoom owners there seems to be some news floating around about rooting the device that may have you putting on the brakes. It seems that over in the Motorola forums a few members have asked a few questions regarding root, software changes, and how this may affect the 4G upgrade. An official employee at Motorola has answered it sort of, but I’ll explain that below

The forum member asked this question, “Rooting the Xoom – will this make it ineligible for 4G upgrade?” This question is more than one question at the same time so I will explain both. He is wondering if simply rooting your Xoom will make you ineligible for the 4G upgrade, or the OTA software upgrade. Someone quickly answers but they aren’t from Motorola, so that answer should be taken lightly. Later down the forum a employee mentions he has upgraded the question and is waiting for an official response. We’ll be sure to update you guys on what we hear.

From my understanding, rooting only gives you more access to your device, that you bought. It wont stop you from getting an OTA update, unless you change to a 3rd party ROM or custom software, but if you’re flashing those I’m assuming you know that. So the main question becomes this, if we root our Xoom, and unlock it, will the Verizon stores still do the “hardware” upgrade to 4G. Or did rooting just void the warranty? Usually you can unroot so I personally don’t see this being a large issue. Hold for more information as it comes in.

[via Motorola Forums]