When is an iPad not an iPad?

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.daniweb.com/reviews/review327951.html' target='_blank'>http://www.daniweb.com/reviews/review327951.html</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"The iPad, without doubt, energized a genre by pretty much redefining it. Of course, that energy is boosted by competition and nowhere is this stronger than the small army of Android-powered tablets that are now available for the seasonal shopper."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/lpt/auto/1291052953.usr20447.jpg" style="border: 0px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>If anyone mentions the word tablet these days, most people will immediately think iPad.&nbsp; Slate tablets have definitely been around a long time, but the recent generation of tablets are unlike anything we have seen.&nbsp; While the iPad continues to dominate, there are many competitors which might be worth your consideration.&nbsp; Based on the reviews and comments from Daniweb, there seems to be many limitations to the current crop of Android tablets, and it may be best to wait for them to start supporting to newer Android OS versions which are much more tablet friendly.&nbsp; These tablets also seem to be lacking support for the Android Market, which pretty much means that that lovely tablet you just bought is likely to offer very little in terms of what you can do with it.&nbsp; If you must go Android though, the Froyo tablets are your best bet as they will give you as close to a full Internet experience as can be had.&nbsp; Otherwise, look towards the Fruit for your tablet needs.</p>

[Craig Horlacher]

I'm excited to see what happens this year when so many good Android tablets are released in the coming months. Apple set the bar as low as possible with the iPad. It won't be hard for Companies like Samsung, LG, Viewsonic, Moto, etc. to trump that. If Apple has been at all surprised by the success of Android phones I think they'll be even more surprised by how quickly Android Tablets become popular. The closer you get to a laptop the more glaring the plethora of IOS and iPad restrictions and limitations will become.

Droid Does.

[Rob Alexander]

I agree about the bar set by the iPad being pretty modest. It lacks many obvious features, and it's easy to write a set of specs that sound better. But the thing is, if it really is that easy to top the iPad, where are all the better devices? Everyone else is dragging their feet and the tablets showing up so far are not good enough to take this market. In the meantime, Apple has released a major OS upgrade that makes substantial improvements to the iPad and information is already starting to leak about the iPad 2. By the time these companies get their competitive devices out, they'll be competing with a second generation iPad. The other problem Android tablets have is the lack of a universal app store. Just looking around the sites at the new Android tablets being announced, you see the same story... they won't work with the app store. The truth is, it's all about the apps. If they can't sort that one out, then they'll never be competitive with the iPad. Of course, I hope they are competitive... consumers always win when companies are competing hard.