Tablets, tablets and more tablets

It's hard to believe how the market has changed over the past few years as it relates to tablets. I took a quick glance at a couple of technology web sites and felt compelled to at least give a mention to quite a few tablet devices that are either on the market or coming soon. This isn't meant to endorse or criticize any product, but I do hope that you'll do your best to encourage users to answer some critical questions (such as what they want to do with the device) as you are asked about which one is the best one, etc.

iPad2 - Apple's offering, which is clearly the market leader and has the most acclaim. Runs their iOS, has a 9.7" screen, front- and rear-facing cameras and has the iTunes store and their apps behind it. Touts a 10-hour battery life. $499 price point for the 16GB WiFi model.

Galaxy Tab - Samsung's offering, which gets some good reviews and runs the Android OS. Android = Flash, which is important to some. Has a USB connection kit to give you access to a thumb drive. 10.1" screen, two cameras, apps via Android Market. $499 price point for 16GB WiFi model. I couldn't find much on battery life, though I read one review that guessed at the 6-7 hour range.

Xoom - Motorola's offering. It runs Android and says it's now upgradeable to 3.1 version. 10.1" display. Front and rear cameras. USB port. They tout a battery life of approximately 10 hours. $599 price point for 32GB WiFi.

Iconia Tab A500 - An Acer offering. 10.1" display, runs Android 3.0, has both cameras and a USB port. "Up to 8 hours" on battery life. $449 price point for 16GB WiFi.

TouchPad - An HP offering. Not on the market yet, but you can pre-order. Runs webOS, which I'll link their description to because I admittedly don't know that much about it. I've read that it 'refines' multitasking and a few reviews say it's very intuitive. 9.7" screen. Front-facing camera. USB port. $499 price point for 16GB WiFi. Pair it with the right HP phone and you can answer calls from it.

Blackberry Playbook - RIM's offering. It's running the Blackberry Tablet OS. 7" screen, up to 10 hours of battery life. Connect wirelessly to your Blackberry phone and access its email, calendar, etc. Dual video cameras. $499 price point for 16GB WiFi.

How exhausting! There are others like the HTC Flyer and the Toshiba Thrive, but you get the idea. They're everywhere and there's much more to it than simply picking one off the shelf and forking out some cash. There are subtle differences covered here and in the general look and feel, ease of use, etc. Please... ask yourself what you want to accomplish before choosing the device that's best for you.