iPad Competitors Line Up

HP is planning tablet options in 2011 that run on its own Palm WebOS as well as Windows. BlackBerry parent Research in Motion is also rumored to have a tablet on the horizon, while a tablet running the Google Android OS is also in the works.

The good news is that there will be a lot of competition, and the better news is that this competition will mean that all of the tablets will get better. We won’t be left to the whims of Apple to define what’s cool and what sort of tablet we’re allowed to have.

Of course, HP has been making tablet PCs for years. So what would a new HP tablet look like? The windows device will probably look like just what it is – an upgrade to the current HP tablet. It’ll likely consist of a body containing a keyboard and some of the communications gear, like a wired Ethernet connector. The screen, as is the case in current devices will be large enough to be useful, will be fully touch sensitive, and will handle handwriting. Mass storage will be in the screen portion, as will wireless networking. No surprises here. You can expect improved battery life in some models, again, no surprise.

As for the WebOS tablet, look to the current Palm devices for some clues. Palm has had touch screen technology since long before the iPhone has existed. It had a form of handwriting recognition that worked well (once you learned Graffiti) and an on-screen keyboard that could be oriented in either landscape or portrait mode. WiFi has been standard for years, and so have on-screen icons and an app store.

For more, read the full eWeek news analysis, HP, Palm, RIM, Android to Boost iPad Tablet Competition.