Australian shoppers will have an easier time shopping this holiday season as major tablet manufacturers slash product prices this month.

Motorola is cutting the price of its Xoom tablet from $840 to $399 to be sold at JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, and Costco.

The tablet runs on Nvidia's Tegra 2 dual-core 1 GHz processor. It has a 10.1 inch touchscreen with a resolution of 1280x800. The Xoom has 1Gb of RAM, Wi-Fi capability, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 3.5mm headphone jack, 3250 mAH battery, a 2 megapixel front-facing camera and a rear-facing 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and 720p HD video recording. For storage, the Xoom has 32 Gb of onboard storage and additional microSD slot for expansion.

The Motorola Xoom runs on Google's Android software version 3.0 "Honeycomb" but it is capable of being upgraded to version 3.2 via free download. It has true multi-tasking functionality and the latest Google Mobile services on a 10.1-inch widescreen HD display - and also comes with inbuilt e-reader. The Android 3.2 software will include pro applications like Quickoffice pro HD; edit QuickOffice documents including Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint.

"The Motorola XOOM is the perfect Christmas gift for any tech-savvy loved-one who wants to stand out from the crowd," Motorola says.

For consumers who want the iPad, Telstar will offer the iPad 2 with Wi-Fi and 3G on a new pre-paid and post-paid plans starting Nov. 15. Telstra will offer the 16 Gb iPad 2 outright for $720 while post-paid two year deals will cost $49 for 1Gb of data, $59 for 2Gb and $99 for 15Gb. The 32 GB version will be offered at $0 with an addition $5 on the above monthly charges and the 64GB version and $8 per month extra.

"Telstra is delighted to make iPad 2 available to purchase from select Telstra Stores around Australia," said Anthea Roberts, Director, Telstra Mobile Broadband.

"Our customers will be able to buy iPad 2 on a plan that includes no upfront fee, a generous monthly data allowance and which allows them to pay the device off over 24 months. Customers will also be able to purchase iPad 2 outright and team it with one of our popular iPad Pre-Paid options that allows them to top up data as they need."

The iPad 2 will be available at select Telstra Shops and all Telstra Business Centers, over the phone on 132200, or from Telstra's Shop Online.

Apple's iPad is the leading tablet around the world with at least 61 percent market share. In Australia 73% of all tablets bought are iPads.