HTC and other OEMs prepared to challenge the iSlate

Having used tablet PCs I personally think one of their main advantages is they provide the third most natural way of entering and manipulating information (the other two being speech and thought).

They've mainly been confined to the business and education sectors though because of price.

Last year I speculated that the touch features of Windows 7 could see an influx of consumer orientated tablets to compete with the HP tx series (the only consumer focussed tablet at the time).

Maybe it will turn out to be Apple who bring the tablet computer to the masses, either with a device of their own or another company releasing a device to compete.

@deonrobinson

In defense of Balmer and the other "ass-hats" as you call them, the cell phone industry is difficult and no one could have forseen that Apple had bet the farm on the success of the iPhone, and had brought every competitive impulse to bear on the problem. At MS its best people were not in the mobile space, same at Dell, Palm....well they had little cash, people were sending out resume's .
Disruptive technology for the win.

Tablets are nothing new. And so far, they have failed in the marketplace. There is no "first mover advantage" to be had.

I just wanted to clear that up. It seems like most bloggers/journalist think the expected Apple tablet is the first tablet to be invented.

I suspect the various iSlate (or iWhatever) competitors will fail. Why? Because it's not about the hardware. It's about the:

hardware + software + content (distribution) = whole experience (solution)

Dell, Microsoft, HTC, etc. cannot out do Apple in the whole experience. Let's face it, Microsoft's software sucks. Dell? HTC?

Remember Apple wasn't the first to do a portable music player. Creative who?

Disclaimer: I do own AAPL, and plan to buy more.

Do they make BSOD that small?

Yes, competition is good. I think that cell phone / tablet competitors have learned the lesson of not being blindsided by Apple, like they were by the iPhone in 2007. Apple has forced others to innovate to stay alive (case-in-point: PALM). Now, if they could only learn how to design like Apple...

OMG it would be HILARIOUS if Apple never actually came out with the 'iSlate'.

Why does everyone have to wait until CES to make an announcment? Can't we just "leak" the news now? ;D

And are we limited to how many of these things we can purchase if/when a Tablet comes out? If not, give me 10 please! Ok. maybe just one. If it ever comes out!

Oh well... Competition is good. Has anyone called any of these the "iSlate killer" yet? I hate that term. Why does everything have to be an "iPhone killer", or "iPod killer", etc.?