iPad competitors won't hit the shelves till March 2011 (at the earliest)

For the next three to four months, it appears that the Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab are the only really viable options. Apple really did good with this one, creating a new market over which it has a virtual monopoly for a period of a year. Oh, they did this before with the iPod. Good one Apple.

RIM's Playbook

While you will be seeing a lot of tablets being shown at the 2011 Consumer and Electronics Show (CES), GSMArena reports that Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), which is designed to be tablet ready, won't be released by Google until March 2011. Most manufacturers, are waiting for Android 3.0 before releasing their tablets.  RIM's Playbook tablet, powered by RIM's QNX operating system is also rumored to ship in March 2011. HP's WebOS powered PalmPad wont be shipping until March 2011 either. More likely, the Honeycomb tablets won't be on the shelves till April or May 2011. That is about the same time Apple iPad 2.