Jul 8, 2011 14:05 GMT  ·  By

Amidst preparations to release a new tablet, and with US stores offering the current XOOM for less than before, Motorola UK has begun to give XOOM buyers a keyboard and mouse free of charge.

The tablet market has, so far, proven to be a fairly bipolar environment, at least as far as product success goes.

Some tablets that got released recently, or resumed slates, sold out in short order, while others failed to impress all that much.

Ultimately, pricing proved the critical element here, as many slates turned out to be quite similar as far as performance went, especially the ones using NVIDIA's Tegra 2 platform.

Speaking of Android tablets, Motorola recently cut the price of the XOOM sold in the US by $100, putting it at $499.

This put it on the same page as most other iPad competitors, though something similar hasn't actually happened in the UK.

Instead, the company is trying a different tactic, namely offering some free accessories alongside each tablet that gets bought, “while supplies last.”

All things considered, it is not dreadfully surprising to see things formulated in such a vague manner.

The offer started on July 1 and is open to customers based in the UK and Ireland, so long as the product was bought before August 1.

The process is not exactly automatic either, though this is understandable considering that many stores, online or otherwise, can actually sell the XOM tablet itself.

As such, those eligible for the promotion will have to mail or otherwise provide Motorola with their proof of purchase, after which they will be sent the wireless peripherals.

What remains is to see how many people jump and the shot, how quick the promo expires and whether or not it does before the XOOM 2 starts making the news in earnest.