The hype about the iPad has been huge and Apple sold 300 000 devices on opening day and over 1 million applications have been downloaded already.
Even Amnesia jumped on the band wagon and we are having an internal competition and the first price is an iPad.
So let’s say I won’t be the lucky one winning the iPad, should I go out and buy one anyways?
if you read this blog on a regular basis you will know that I like to look at some things from the funny angle, but at least you know now that the iPad is blendable and it is powered by an iPhone. 
We all know that the iPad is not the first tablet on the market and there have been alternatives around for some time now.
take the Modbook for example
you provide the unibody macbook to this company and for US$900 they will turn your 2500 dollar macbook into a tablet that runs full OSX with flash and multi-tasking support.
and then there is the Viliv X70 which has been around for over a year now
it runs WindowsXP, has GPS, USB, SD card slot and 3G
but if those devices would be the only alternatives I wouldn’t think twice and go straight with the iPad
Fortunately new devices are basically introduced every day so there are more options.
so it looks like that all different Operating systems will have tablets coming out to I will show alternatives based on that.
Steve Balmer showed the HP Slate off and I was excited to see it and couldn’t wait to know more about it
so finally there are more details available and on paper it has some advantages over the iPad:
1.6Ghz CPU, 1080p playback, card reader, USB port, 2 cameras, supports flash and multi-tasking
another windows alternative would be the Archos 9 PC tablet
Next on the list is Linux and this time the tablet is coming out of Germany and is called WePad (how innovative)
coming out of Germany it should be a nice piece of equipment and it has again a few things to offer that the iPad can’t match
larger screen, 2 USB ports, supports all ebook formats, flash support, access to the Android market place
Speaking of Android my next choice is probably my favourite – ICDs Gemini
as i said it is running Android OS, has a 11 inch screen which can be resistive or capacitive, a 5 axis accelerometer, card reader, voice calls, SMS, MMS, Wireless N, FM radio, IR, USB port, 2 cameras, GPS, dual speakers and microphones, HD video. email support and flash support
unfortunately there is no release date or price yet, but this little gem looks pretty awesome – there is a great comparison on engadget here
another Android alternative that has been talked about is the Notion Ink Adam
Then there is the browser based OS tablet that was born out of controvercy called JooJoo
it has a bigger screen, 1 GB of Ram, USB port, flash support and camera, but everything else I read about it didn’t convince me at all – it seems to have early release issues, but hopefully they will be solved with software updates
There are plenty of rumours about Chrome tablets that are coming out – supposedly Google and HTC are working on a tablet based on Chromium
all you can really find online are concepts by Google so there are no hardware specs or release dates or prizes
So if I have to sum it up, there are plenty of alternatives to the iPad. For me the ICD Gemini is my favourite at the moment and I would love to get my hands on one to really give it a test drive (ICD if you are reading this, please send one my way)
But of course this is just my opinion and everybody should make up their own mind. I would love to read your opinions so please leave them in the comments below.
