CES Impact On Apple - Summary

We know Apple's impact on CES this week. Even though a no-show, as expected, Apple has a huge impact and it shows.

Competitors are out in force with just about everything they've got to throw at Apple. On deck today was Asus.

It showed off four tablet devices running Windows 7 or Android. Some have keyboards while others are just touchscreens. One of them even can detach from the keyboard.

The Transformer, as it is called, showed the largest promise. With the keyboard attachment, the 10" tablet-network runs a combination of 16 hours running on Nvidia's Tegra 2 chip.

And with an entry price at $399 for the 16GB, it does look like iPad competitors are off to a strong start.

Obviously, we cannot take Asus at their words. Not until folks have had time to play with it and see for themselves. But forget about the tablets running Windows 7 or anything that running other than Android 3.

This is the tablet to watch. Tomorrow, we'll see others get into the ring.

One more thing. The Transformer, like many Android 3 tablets won't be available until June. So, these guys will not be going up against the iPad. They'll be dealing with iPad 2 or whatever Apple decides to call it.