Competing tablets to emerge from HP and Lenovo

 Lenovo's tablet (codenamed LePad) was confirmed and is currently under development. Here's what we know, the device will run Google's Android OS. We've seen Lenovo's IdeaPad U1 hybrid earlier this year so there might be some similarity in terms of form factor and design.

The IdeaPad U1 hybrid demoed in this year's CES was running on Windows 7 so it will be interesting to see if Lenovo will offer this option in its tablet line or if they are now completely invested in Google's Android OS. Whatever the case, Lenovo will need to price the tablet aggressively in order to compete with the iPad, which in June sold over 2 million units and has been partly responsible for Apple's strongest earnings quarter ever.

"We want the tablet PC to be compatible with our LePhone smartphone, which is why we're using Android," a Lenovo representative told Reuters. Lenovo also seems to be serious about pursuing the smartphone market and will likely team up with Google for their upcoming Android powered handsets.

Palm Tablet, really?

HP, which acquired Palm mainly for its WebOS mobile operating system has also applied for the Palm Tablet trademark and is expected to push ahead with a WebOS tablet. While Palm failed to generate enough consumer and developer interest to compete in the smartphone market that it helped create, they developed WebOS which is a compelling mobile OS.

As a mobile operating system WebOS shows a lot of promise. It is a cloud-based, always connected OS that offers real multitasking and as well as the capability to scale nicely to a larger, tablet format. HP has been making TabletPC's for years and gets its expertise from Compaq, which it acquired back in 2002. Compaq was the first company to showcase Microsoft's TabletPC variant of Windows XP.

My, how times have changed. Now, it seems that HP, which showed off a slate prototype that was supposed to be running on Windows 7 also at CES 2010, killed off that product and pretty much left Microsoft without a flagship slate device.

It owns WebOS now so it will definitely use its development and marketing muscle to push the PalmTab initiative forward. We're looking forward as the tablet market shapes up and some real competition begins.

Tablet computer shipments are expected to grow by an average 57.4 per cent per year between 2010 and 2014, said research think tank IDC.