Promises made, promises kept. That’s what we expect, perhaps foolishly, from the companies that we purchase from. When we’re told something will happen, or something will ship, or something will be added, we expect it to happen when we’re told we should. There is plenty of preparation and planning that goes into these announcements, so why shouldn’t we? That’s why when something doesn’t happen, our whole outlook on the company, and the device we bought, alters. It doesn’t have to be a big change, but it’s a change nonetheless. And now that we’re well passed the 90-day timeframe given by Motorola regarding the XOOM’s 4G LTE upgrade, I’m wondering what some of you who purchased the tablet may have done with it.

There’s no denying that returns happen. All companies have a return policy of some kind (even if some of them aren’t that great), and when dealing with technology and the way that each person’s interaction with a device can be different, returns aren’t the greatest, but they are expected. In the case of the Motorola XOOM, the first Honeycomb-powered Android tablet, this isn’t a case where promises were made and subsequently kept. Quite the contrary, in fact. When the XOOM was announced, there was additional information regarding the 4G LTE upgrade, since the device wouldn’t feature that functionality right out of the box.

Unfortunately, Motorola’s plans for the upgrade to LTE weren’t all that fantastic for consumers. You’d have to send in your XOOM to Motorola, and there’s a chance that you’ll have to wait almost a week to get it back. Not the best of ways to upgrade your tablet, but since putting someone in each Verizon corporate store out there to upgrade the tablet would have probably been remarkably expensive, sending it into the manufacturer made sense. With that plan in place, and not a secret at all, I know of a few people who skipped over the tablet, even if the upgrade was going to happen in just 90 days.

And here’s the second kick to the shins. We are well beyond 90 days now. We are five months after the launch of the XOOM, and we now know that the upgrade to the device won’t be coming until September. If that date gets pushed back to the end of September, then it will be a total of 7 months that XOOM owners had to wait. This is only compounded by the fact that Motorola has been relatively quiet on the hold-up, not really giving any details as to why the delay was issued. It’s been suggested that Motorola was waiting for Verizon’s 4G network to expand, which some would say is a sound argument.

So did some people out there get rid of their XOOM because that 90-day window was missed for the LTE upgrade? It’s possible. But, it’s more likely that if someone did get rid of the XOOM, it was due to other things not working out for them, or perhaps competitor pricing for their own Honeycomb-powered tablets. Talking with some people suggests that they skipped over the XOOM right from the get-go due to pricing. What may be worse, though, is that some of these people skipped the purchase because they didn’t expect Motorola to stay on track with their upgrade plans.

Delays happen, and that’s something that we’re all faced with in this market, or any other market for that matter. While we don’t want them to happen, and we all hold some sliver of hope that our favorite devices or other features don’t get delayed, it’s always possible. Sometimes, it’s inevitable. So the fact that the 4G upgrade for the XOOM didn’t happen on time may not be a deal breaker for the majority, and the XOOM’s other features may make it worthy enough to keep it, and hold out (im)patiently for the LTE upgrade.

Did you buy the XOOM right at launch expecting the LTE upgrade within 90 days? If so, have you kept your tablet or have you moved onto another device? And if you didn’t buy the XOOM, and still haven’t, are you waiting for the device to feature 4G LTE-connectivity before you pull the trigger? Or does another tablet have your eye? Let me know in the comments below.