Costco may offer Verizon Wireless’s Samsung Galaxy Nexus beginning on Thursday, December 15th, according to a leaked photo. Verizon has yet to announce an official launch date, but we’ve heard plenty of reports that the Galaxy Nexus is already arriving in retail stores, so the leaked image could mean that we’ll hear pricing and launch details from the carrier any day now. Costco’s advertisement, obtained by Engadget, says the device will cost $289.99 with a new two-year contract. That’s certainly not a budget-friendly price, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see the phone pop up at third-party retailers for far less than that. The Galaxy Nexus is the first Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) smartphone and it packs a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, a 5-megapixel camera, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chats, 16GB of storage, 1GB of RAM, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC and a 1,750 mAh battery into a slim profile. The highly anticipated handset is certainly worthy of the excitement, too — we called the international version of the Galaxy Nexus our “favorite Android device in the world” in our recent review. 

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Motorola announced the March 27th launch of its Wi-Fi-only XOOM on Wednesday, and now Costco has made the tablet available for pre-order. While Costco quotes a ship date five days later than Motorola’s — April 1st as opposed to March 27th — the wait will award buyers free shipping, a discounted price and a free gel case. Granted, the discount is only $10, but tack on the free shipping and that snazzy gel case, and you’ve got yourself a solid deal. We reviewed the Motorola XOOM in February and said it packs a serious punch. Included with that punch is Google’s Android 3.0 Gingerbread OS, a dual-core 1GHz processor, 32GB of storage and a 10.1-inch HD display.

Thanks, Roberto

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In a press release just moments ago, Motorola Mobility announced the release of the its Wi-Fi only XOOM tablet in the United States. Available beginning March 27th for $599, the 32GB device will be available at Amazon.com, Best Buy, Costco, RadioShack, select Sam’s Club locations, Staples and Walmart. The XOOM was the first tablet to launch with Google’s Honeycomb operating system (Android 3.0) back in February. The price tag, which has been a point of contention amongst technology pundits and analysts, mirrors that of Apple’s 32GB Wi-Fi iPad. The full press release is after the break.

Motorola Mobility Brings MOTOROLA XOOM™ Wi-Fi to United States

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. – March 16, 2011 – Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI), today announced the upcoming availability of MOTOROLA XOOM™ Wi-Fi edition from leading retailers across the United States starting March 27. Amazon.com, Best Buy, Costco, RadioShack, Sam’s Club (select locations), Staples and Walmart will be offering the 10.1-inch widescreen HD tablet with Android™ 3.0 (Honeycomb) through both online and retail store channels. The MSRP for MOTOROLA XOOM Wi-Fi with 32 GB of memory will be $599.

“MOTOROLA XOOM is a truly innovative tablet – its design, coupled with being the first tablet to have Android 3.0, results in a user experience that is one-of-a-kind,” said Dan Papalia, vice president of retail sales for Motorola Mobility. “We are now continuing to expand the choices available to consumers with the MOTOROLA XOOM Wi-Fi to be available soon from numerous leading retailers in the United States.”

In addition, the MOTOROLA XOOM Wi-Fi will be available to commercial IT channels and regional retailers through a distribution agreement with Synnex Corporation, and regional carriers through Brightpoint, Inc.

MOTOROLA XOOM showcases the innovations of the Honeycomb user experience – including widgets, true multi-tasking, browsing, notifications and customization – on a 10.1-inch widescreen HD display, enabling video content that’s richer and clearer than ever before. With a 1GHz dual-core processor and 1 GB of RAM, MOTOROLA XOOM delivers exceptionally fast web-browsing performance. The latest Google Mobile services include Google Maps 5.0™ with 3D interaction and access to more than 3 million Google eBooks and apps from Android Market™. MOTOROLA XOOM also supports a Beta of Adobe® Flash® Player 10.2 downloadable from Android Market, enabling the delivery of rich Flash based web content including videos, casual games and rich Internet applications.

As the first device running Android 3.0, MOTOROLA XOOM benefits from our aggressive work with developers across the ecosystem through MOTODEV, Motorola’s developer support program to enable world-class tablet and smartphone experiences. These devices will be able to access more than 150,000 applications within the Android Market as well as the rapidly increasing number of applications optimized directly for the Android 3.0 OS. In addition, thousands of Flash-based web applications and sites will become available for the MOTOROLA XOOM.

As a part of the company’s commitment and leadership — along with Google’s — to the Android ecosystem, Motorola announced a series of global developer events in 11 cities across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. These MOTODEV events give developers access to tools, support and Motorola’s team of Android experts. The first of these events was hosted in San Francisco on March 1 and had more than 665 developers in attendance.

MOTODEV also recently announced a new testing and certification program for Honeycomb applications, encouraging developers to submit their applications to get early feedback and support on MOTOROLA XOOM performance. This is a part of the company’s ongoing commitment to supporting the ecosystem in delivering high quality experiences to the consumer.

More information about MOTODEV tools, resources and events can be found at http://developer.motorola.com.

It looks like Motorola ATRIX 4G pricing revealed recently when Amazon prematurely posted a product page might not be so deeply discounted after all. Instead, the $149.99 price point could be standard among discount retailers at launch. An alleged photograph taken of Costco’s inventory system reveals the same price point for AT&T’s upcoming Android superphone. The Motorola ATRIX 4G features a 4-inch display, a dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM and Google’s Android operating system. It also features an optional dock accessory that converts the device into a full-sized smartbook. Motorola confirmed that the ATRIX 4G will become available late next month, and AT&T has not yet revealed pricing for the phone.

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There were rumors going around not long ago about more subsidized netbooks making their way over to AT&T. Well, it looks like AT&T is about to start offering the Acer Aspire One 10.1″ netbook complete with integrated AT&T 3G access via a partnership with Costco. Costco employees are currently being trained for the launch and according to the info we received, the preparation comes to a head on May 8th. As for the netbook itself, it will become availble beginning May 11th. We’re pretty sure the Acers will be available from both AT&T retail stores and Costco electronics kiosks, just like Radio Shack’s current AT&T netbook. No word yet on pricing but look for it to line up just above the 8.9″ model currently available from Radio Shack.