In the months before the announcement of the Apple iPad, I was reading about Techcrunch prototyping something called the Crunchpad.

Unfortunately, the Crunchpad never made it to market in the end.  The full story on why is told here, while the device under a different name is explained here.

Tablet computers are an intriguing subject, especially now the iPad has been created.  They've been around in some form or another the past decade, though here in Australia you'd be lucky to ever see one.

Apparently they seem to do well in some niche markets like medicine.

I am kind of surprised they haven't been picked up more by the art/graphics community.  Drawing directly on a screen would actually be more preferable to drawing on a digitizing tablet seperate from the screen.  I should know...I've tried various ways to do computer graphics and I'm still partial to a Palm or PocketPC and stylus.  I just hate the SIZE of such screens.

Hmm...just realized I should patent or bag intellectual property on the idea of a tablet screen for drawing...

Jokes aside, up to now the timing hasn't been right for mainstream tablets.

What's different now is the netbook market has opened some ground, so it comes down to making a tablet that does something netbooks can't and which has popular appeal.

Is it the tablet's time at last?  Deloitte Digital seems to think so.

Steve Jobs has aimed the iPad at those people who normally shy away from other computers, but who still want to do email, video watching and music listening.  Oh, and who also like gaming.  Your granny should be able to do all these things on the iPad within the first ten minutes and be enjoying it in fifteen.

Jobs, then, is aiming at the right people, those millions or billions who just want something that works for simple email, video, music, gaming and web-browsing without needing an MSCE qualification.

Others, of course, want a tablet which does the same things as Windows 7 and Mac OS X in a slate form factor.  Except, we've had those on the Windows side of things and they haven't taken off that well outside of niches. Will the HP Slate work with Windows 7 to change that?  We'll know soon enough.

It may still come down more to what's actually on a tablet than the actual hardware.

So what else do we have in tablet options? Do we have a middle ground or third path?

Today the Sydney Morning Herald pointed out Google's Chrome OS as a potential operating system for tablet computers.

Then there's Android, already making waves on mobile phones and some netbooks.

Combined with NVidia's Tegra chipset, Android-based tablets could still make a huge impact.

Of course, just reading about a Dell Android mini-tablet makes me cringe a little.  A five-inch screen-size?  Naw, that doesn't float my boat.  Give me seven-to-ten inches of screen and I might consider it.

Here's one prototype shown at CES, great Android OS, great Tegra chip, but let down by some other parts of the hardware.

Engadget has an article about the second generation of the Tegras here.

The ICD Vega demonstrates one of the better Tegra-based Android tablets, avaialbe in both capacitive and resistive touchscreens.

Enough different things are coming together to bring tablet computing out of the niches.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to my first tablet especially if it enables better drawing than the Palm or PocketPC allowed me.

The iPad is already on the shopping list as two other members of my family want it, not just me...you should see my missus and the nine-year-old drooling over that iPad.  It's already a hit with its intended audience and it hasn't even been sold yet.

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