Will Recent Tablet Deluge Hurt Apple's Chances?

And with Apple expected -- by many accounts -- to unveil its first tablet computer at a media event Jan. 27, is it possible that the computer giant could be a little too late to the tablet game?

CES was dominated by tablets, slates and a host of other portable PCs that take some tabletlike form factor. HP and Microsoft tried to steal Apple's tablet thunder with the Slate, a tablet-style PC the two companies co-released at CES last week. The Microsoft-HP Slate received less-than-stellar reviews from the Apple faithful.

Other computing mainstays that dove headfirst into CES' increasingly crowded tablet, or slate, pool were Dell, Motorola and Lenovo.

While the tablet PC form factor is nothing new, it is strangely coincidental that many major PC makers chose now to unveil their latest models, while the Apple rumor mill has had dreams of tablets for months.

Now is a great time for tablets, considering that the wireless PCs can take advantage of a host of multimedia content and applications and do everything from play video, surf the Web, download and listen to music and pretty much any function a standard PC can handle all in a unique form factor.

But the recent rash of tablets is more an attempt to take the spotlight off Apple.

So will it work?

Probably not.

That's not to say that HP, Microsoft, Dell and the others won't make solid products -- by many accounts they will. But like we've seen in the smartphone market, Apple has pull. The Apple iPhone has taken the world by storm, like it or not. And an Apple tablet offering will likely do the same.

And as more information leaks out to the tablet-hungry market, Apple's stake in the emerging format is growing.

Earlier this week, a France Telecom's Orange executive let slide that Apple's tablet will feature a Webcam and offer 3G connectivity. In addition, a story in The Wall Street Journal cited anonymous sources that indicate Apple will release a 10-inch or 11-inch touch-screen tablet in two different finishes. That same story indicated the Apple tablet will start shipping in March after its January unveiling.

Regardless, the competition around tablet PCs is gearing up to be an interesting one going forward. Now that CES is over, all eyes are on Apple.