Nvidia’s head honcho knows that sluggish sales of Android tablets are a problem, but says it won’t be that way forever.

“I think that the vast majority of tablet users are actually buying from retail, and Wi-Fi only,” said Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang on a quarterly earnings conference call with reporters, explaining why sales for Android-powered tablets have been lackluster so far. But, he explained, you couldn’t buy Wi-Fi-only versions at retail outlets. “The first generation of tablets initially came out from our carriers, and with 3G,” said Huang, whose Nvidia Tegra 2 processors can be found inside multiple Android tablets currently on the market.

Despite a wealth of options from different hardware manufacturers, Android-powered tablets don’t have the same momentum as the iPad. Apple’s tablet still accounts for 82 percent of the tablet market, according to Nielsen.

Huang’s statement places much of the blame squarely on Motorola’s release strategy for the Xoom, Google’s flagship tablet product running Android’s tablet-optimized version 3.0 (Honeycomb) software. The Xoom debuted on Verizon’s 3G network in February for $600 with a two-year Verizon contract, or without a contract for a whopping $800.