eReader/Tablet/Slate Market Heats Up

This summer should be very interesting for developments on the eReader/Tablet/Slate market. Apple’s iPad at $500 to $900 will be the seventy cents spread … and a number of products from HP’s Slate to Amazon’s spiked up Kindle will be vying to show that they are a notch or two ahead of the iPad. Apple has given its rivals at least 5 major talking points:
1)no on board camera;
2)no SD card slots;
3)no Flash support;
4)no phone support;
5)sometimes very restrictive App store qualification criteria.
The trade press is picking up on this.
eWeek – Apple, HP Moves Suggest Tablet War Heating Up and price, features and Flash will be factors
maximumpc – Samsung reveals Slate PC and calls iPad glorified MIDI device
Hubpages – Upcoming Slate Devices and Handheld Tablet Devices to Compete With Apple iPad Tablet
So clearly other competitors are a)now taking Apple seriously and b)modifying their offerings based on Apples iPad specs and features. It looks like Apple will not have the benefit of surprise this time; but will have the benefit of millions of iPod Touch and iPhone users.