iPadversaries! 32 Tablets, Slates, Pads, and More

Get ready for the coming onslaught of rivals to Apple's tablet--it's going to get crazy.

Lenovo “LePad”

Availability: Late 2010, although it’s not clear it’ll be sold anywhere but China
OS: Android
Screen size: Unknown (at least to me–I’m not positive that the photo here is of this particular Lenovo device)
Price: Unknown
What else: VentureBeat’s story on LePad mentions another Lenovo device whose fate is unclear–the U1, which is one-half netbook, one-half tablet. It’s not in this list because it has a physical keyboard.
More info: Here’s a Reuters story.
MSI WindPad 100

Availability: This year
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium with a “Wind Touch” interface layer
Screen size: 10″
Price: Approximately $499
What else: A photo of the side of the device at Trusted Reviews makes it look terrifyingly thick.
More info: Joanna Stern of Engadget shares some first impressions (“incredibly sluggish”).
MSI WindPad 110

Availability: This year, or possibly never, depending on which MSI employee you ask
OS: Android 2.1
Screen size: 10″
Price: $399?
What else: As you can see from the photos, the industrial design is different from MSI’s Windows-based WindPad 100.
More info: TweakTown has a video hands-on.
Marvell “Moby” Tablet

Availability: This year
OS: Android
Screen size: I’m not sure (and it might vary)
Price: Starting at $99
What else: This isn’t a specific product–it’s Marvell’s reference design for extremely low-cost tablets which will be built by other companies using Marvell chips. The company hopes resulting products will be affordable enough for use by public schools.
More info: Hey, I was the first person to write about Moby (although at the time I didn’t know the code name or the $99 price point).
Motorola-Verizon TV tablet

Availability: Fall 2010 or next year, depending on who you believe; neither Motorola nor Verizon has acknowledged its existence
OS: Android (possibly version 3.0 “Gingerbread”)
Screen size: 10″
Price: Unknown
What else: The Financial Times has reported that it will be thinner and lighter than the iPad and will sport two cameras.
More info: BGR has also reported on the device.
Nefonie WeTab

Availability: September?
OS: Linux (unless that’s really Windows 7 under there)
Screen size: 11.6″
Price: Apparently around $580
What else: This German iPadversary’s custom user interface places advertising widgets on the desktop which you can’t remove.
More info: It may not be for sale yet, but it already has its own Wikipedia entry, and that’s a start.
Notion Ink Adam

Availability: Possibly this year
OS: Android
Screen size: Unknown
Price: Unknown
What else: The Adam is from India, was demoed at CES back in January, boasts an individualistic industrial design, and will be available in a version with Pixel Qi’s innovative screen technology, which can work in backlit and non-backlit modes. But the Notion Ink site has few details and the whole project has a slightly vaporous feel at the moment.
More info: Slashgear went behind the scenes at Notion Ink.
OLPC XO 3.0

Availability: 2012, in theory
OS: Linux with a next-generation version of the Sugar user interface, I’d imagine
Screen size: The device itself is 8.5″ by 11″ and all screen (and 1.4″ thick)
Price: They’re shooting for $75
What else: This isn’t an iPad rival–it’s a successor to the “$100 laptop” (which costs more than $100) for kids in developing nations. It’s also not a sure thing, considering that the OLPC Foundation showed off an OLPC 2.0 concept in 2008, then decided not to build it. Nicholas Negroponte describes the XO 3.0 as “aspirational,” which I assume is a code-word for “this is a cool concept which we hope we can build by the time 2012 rolls around.”
More info: XO 3.0 is years from intended production, but the OLPC press release already says it’s a breakthrough advance.
Onkyo Windows Slate

Availability: This year
OS: Windows 7
Screen size: Unknown
Price: Unknown
What else: Waitaminnit, I thought Onkyo made stereo equipment! Turns out it makes computing devices, too–and it was mentioned in Steve Ballmer’s slide about 2010 Windows 7 slate PCs.
Panasonic Windows Slate

Availability: This year
OS: Windows 7
Screen size: Unknown
Price: Unknown
What else: Another Ballmer-slide slate. When it comes to traditional PCs, Panasonic specializes in extra-durable ToughBook laptops; maybe this will turn out to be the ToughPad.
RIM “BlackPad”

Availability: Supposedly November
OS: Presumably BlackBerry OS
Screen size: Apparently similar to the iPad’s 9.7″
Price: Allegedly $499
What else: RIM isn’t talking, but Bloomberg seems pretty sure of a bunch of details.
More info: I said that the BlackPad will presumably run RIM’s own BlackBerry OS. But there’s scuttlebutt that it runs Android–which doesn’t seem like a completely nutty idea.
Samsung Windows Slate

Availability: This year
OS: Windows 7
Screen size: Unknown
Price: Unknown
What else: Samsung is another company mentioned in Steve Ballmer’s slide on upcoming Windows tablets. With so many supposedly on the way, it’ll be fascinating to see how much room the manufacturers have to give any specific WinSlate much personality of its own. For what it’s worth, Samsung makes some nifty netbooks.
Sony Windows Slate

Availability: This year
OS: Windows 7
Screen size: Unknown
Price: Unknown
What else: Another Ballmer-slide slate. All things being equal, shouldn’t Sony have as good or better a chance as any company of building a tablet that could compete with the iPad in terms of raw industrial-design polish?
“The $35 Indian Tablet”

Availability: Mid-2011
OS: Linux. Or maybe Android.
Screen size: Unknown (at least to me)
Price: Um, $35? In theory, they might eventually cost ten bucks apiece.
What else: The device is the pet project of Indian Minister for HR Development Kapil Sibal and is meant for use in schools in that country. The host of a tech TV show there pronounced it “fairly impressive.”
More info: Our own Jared Newman is inexplicably skeptical about this product and the intended price point.
Toshiba Libretto W100

Availability: This month
OS: Windows 7
Screen size: Like the eDGe, it’s a dualie–it has two 7″ color LCD touchscreens (the bottom one can display content or a keyboard)
Price: $1100
What else: Toshiba isn’t pitching this new model in its venerable Libretto line as an iPad killer. Instead, it says it’s a concept PC which shows off technologies that might become common in future machines.
More info: Here’s Toshiba’s own write-up of the W100.
Toshiba Windows Slate

Availability: This year
OS: Windows 7
Screen size: Unknown
Price: Unknown
What else: Yes, another slate from Ballmer’s presentation. Toshiba is one of the few companies left that still offers a full complement of Windows-based Tablet PCs.

Okay, that’s enough for now, although I could go on. (Steve Ballmer’s slide mentioned ten more Windows slates that are supposedly on the way, mostly from Asian suppliers.)

Are you genuinely excited by any of these? Do you think any will be breakout hits? If I were Steve Jobs, I wouldn’t be rattled by by of them, although details are so scant on many that it’s impossible to form an opinion, period.

I already mentioned that I found the Cisco Cius intriguing; Notion Ink’s Adam also stands out from the pack. I’m itching to learn details about HP’s WebOS device. And I remain extremely skeptical about Windows 7 as a tablet operating system–but I’m willing to be pleasantly surprised…

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