1. Amazon has  acquired Touchco – they are a small startup with apparently very cheap touchscreen displays. Will be a while before anything released, but expect it to be a major play and tie up with everything else Amazon, especially books

2. Google has released mock ups of its Chrome powered tablet. Mock ups only at this stage, so take with a grain of salt, they are probably quite happy to try steal some Apple thunder. Google books would seem to be a good point of tablet integration.

Google Tablet running Chrome

3. Microsoft unveiled 3 slate pcs at CES powered by HP, Archos, and Pegatron. Microsoft slates will be running Windows 7. This could be an opportunity for Microsoft.

It seems to us that you would have to be nuts to buy a MS slate considering their history and the range of competition available. However if Microsoft came in at the top of the market with something special, they could just steal someone elses thunder. Big if though…

4. Sony apparently stands ready to make use of its market power and laptop delivery to broach the new tablet market. Considering how easy it would be for them to brand and market a vanilla, standard tablet, its pretty much a  no brainer that they will enter the market.

Sony could however also  step up and sync up a Sony Tablet to their other products if they wanted a great USP.

5. Asus tablet rumoured off the back of their success with the Eee pcs. Again seems a no brainer for them at the low end of the market.

6. Fusion Garage has a JooJoo Tablet (you may remember it as the acrimonious Techcrunch Cruchpad in another life) and is accepting pre orders. You can preorder the JooJoo tablet here. From the Fusion Garage site as of 06/02/10 “We are only accepting pre-orders in the U.S at the moment. Pre-orders will ship in 8 to 10 weeks.”

Joo Joo tablet is $499 and you can get a Joo Joo stand for $29.99 

7. Motorola apparently are also looking to get in on the act

8. Out of left field the iFreeTablet - The IPTVMunicipal Avanza project in Spain releases an Orvita2 project star device called the iFreeTablet.  Its an open source tablet and looks to sell at 300-400 Euros (around $300). You can reserve an iFreeTablet.

Related links

http://www.ifreetablet.com/

https://thejoojoo.com/

http://www.dailytech.com/Amazon+Google+Prepare+iPad+Competitors/article17608.htm

http://www.inquisitr.com/60554/sony-drops-hints-about-their-own-ipad-competitor/

http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/ifreetablet-the-open-source-ipad-competitor-from-spain-2010023/

http://www.suntimes.com/technology/2017181,motorola-ceos-ipad-smartphones.article

Its pretty cool, not all that useful at the moment though but meant to fit the same space as the wheels for the wiimote. Its plastic and looks like you could whip one up yourself pretty much.

Negative Comments so far
Comments are pretty negative, but we think that many miss the potential in this concept design.

Sure, its a pretty low key iPad design, but if Michael could figure out how to attach a few buttons to the wheel that would make a big difference to its usability and the potential for use in iPad gaming.

Lucrative Market
Lots of people love racing games on the iPhone and many will love racing games on the iPad. Whoever makes the first set of racing accessories for the iPad is going to be first in line in a lucrative market.

We would suggest a Nascar racing game and then a branded Nascar iPad wheel accessory would be an obvious starting point. Similar tie ins are possible for F1 and others.

iDrift- iPad steering wheel accessory

More iPad on the iPad steering wheel accessory:

original site – http://www.yankodesign.com/2010/02/01/no-ipad-jokes-get-the-idrift/

comment from

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/02/ipad-game-accessories-already-appearing/

http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/idrift-ipad-game-controller-02-02-2010/

http://gizmodo.com/5462210/idrift-gaming-peripheral-concept-for-the-ipad-will-be-a-reality-soon-im-sure

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/31186/idrift-apple-ipad-steering-wheel-accessory