This looks rather promising for once... It only leaves out the issue of price, really. Battery-life-wise, I'd estimate it'd likely equate the iPad, as it appears the TP will be comparably hungry, and while Apple has been tight-lipped a bit on the exact capacity of the iPad's battery, 6300 mAh seems to be about right. (though I've seen some 5400 mAh figures)
One problem previously is that really, a lot of makers have been missing the mark: tablet PCs have been around for YEARS, and have conventionally been hyper-expensive devices that packed laptop functionality with a touchscreen into a smaller form-factor than a laptop. This obviously wasn't a huge market: the iPad targetted an entirely DIFFERENT market, by making it a consumer electronic device, one that'd sell to people that didn't really need it. (such as the iPhone making a market selling smartphones to people that never really needed more than, say, a RAZR could provide)
Since the iPad's launch, we've seen a huge slew of purported "iPad killers," that all failed: and I predicted their failure each time. Why'd they fail? They all weren't correctly targetted. For things like the Slate, it was really just a revision of the old "business device" tablet: high-powered, PC-equivalency, with a price to match. Similarly, other devices could fail for being TOO cheap, and, in their race to the bottom, actually wind up cutting off things to make them equal to the iPad.
The iPad WILL eventually lose its market place, just like Apple's desktop/laptop businesses are has-beens, and the iPhone is now headed toward as well. Simply put, they produce a not-the-best product and demand a premium price for it: hence they're limited, in the long-term, to a niche market that goes for their aesthetics and formfactor.
The iPad is no exception. However, it'll take a device that manages to be SLIGHTLY superior in capabilities to it (enough to be noticeable) while also being CHEAPER, to really start to burst Apple's Hype Bubble, especially with
Steve Jobs' RDF fueling it. In this day and age, it will take a device that never fails to at least match or beat the iPad on ALL fronts: it must be hands-down equal or superior in everything, so it can't make one trade-off to be "really good" at a bunch of things.
So far, I think the TouchPad stands to be the first tablet properly positioned to make a successful strike. If it can get equal battery life, and come in at a comparable price, the advantages in capabilities will make it a clear winner.
[citation][nom]theshonen8899[/nom]I am not a fan of Apple products. However, when has anyone ever said the statement, "[Insert gimmick here] will be an [insert successful Apple product here] killer!" and been completely right?[/citation]
Well, I don't think that statement was really popular back in earlier times... But last I knew, the Generic WinTel platform was pretty good at utterly exterminating Apple's success in the PC market... And Apple has only started seeing any modicum of success again once they opted to be assimilated into that same architecture: they now use Intel processors, and the capability of using Windows is now a SELLING POINT.