A look at the iPad's competition by operating system

The iPad.

It's not a Tablet PC, despite the exclusive version of iWork it will be getting, and it's not an E-reader despite the iBooks and Kindle reader software it will also feature. The device is really a jack-of-all-trades device meant to grow Apple's iTunes-based ecosystem, by providing another screen for applications developers to publish on.

But if you watched today's presentation from Apple, and you watched the company's iPad promotion video, you heard Apple executives use a term that we're quite familiar with already: "Internet Tablet."

We've heard the term applied to a number of devices from Nokia in the last few years, The N800, N810, and the Maemo-driven N900 which is actually more of a phone than a tablet. It's also been applied to the Archos 5 and Archos 7 portable media players, and the WiMAX-enabled Samsung Mondi.

These devices all have different core uses and work on different operating systems; so how does the iPad shape up against them?

	iPad	Archos 7	Nokia N900	Viliv X70 EX
OS	iPhone OS 3.2	Linux (Android version pending)	Maemo	Windows XP Home
Processor	1GHz Apple A4 System-on-a-chip	600MHz ARM Cortex A8 + 430MHz 32 bit DSP	600MHz ARM Cortex A8 TI OMAP 3430	1.33 GHz Intel Atom Z520 (Silverthorne)
RAM	unknown	128MB DDR SDRAM	256MB RAM, 768MB Virtual	1GB DDR
Storage	16GB, 32GB, or 64GB Flash	160GB, 320GB HDD	32GB Flash +MicroSD	16GB-32GB Flash +SDHC
Screen	9.7" LED backlit touchscreen (1024 x 768)	7" TFT LCD touchscreen (800x400)	3.5" (800x400) touchscreen	7" LED backlit touchscreen (1024x768)
Connections	802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1, HSPA 3G, 30-pin iPod connector	802.11b/g, USB 2.0	802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.1, Quad-band GSM, EDGE, WCDMA, A-GPS, FM, AV out	802.11b/g, HSPA 3G, GPS, USB 2.0, AV out
Profile	9.56" x 7.47" x .5"	7.48" x 4.33" x .629"	4.36" x 2.35" x .7"	4.6" x 8.25" x .89"
Weight	1.5 lbs (1.6 with 3G module)	1.4 lbs	0.4 lbs	2 lbs
Cost	$499.99-$849	$349.99	$549.99 (unlocked)	$599-$899