The State of the iPad Competition - a Consumer View

Had a bit of idle time with the family in the shops. Decided to take a look at the current state of tablets. Disclaimer: I’m an iPad user since day one. Tried a few options:

• Arnova 8" G2 - buttons designed for portrait, display defaults to portrait. Rotated the display thinking that it would flip, no luck. Did a bit of ‘bouncing’ it up and down, no luck. Walked away.
• MOTOROLA Xoom - couldn’t find the on button, I think, (and online searching suggests) its on the back, but the only likely candidate had a unlock padlock icon and didn’t work to switch the device on. Hunted for several minutes…and walked away.
• BLACKBERRY PlayBook - blank screen. Now, starting to expect this, I dug around for the power button. I was surprised to see it was a tiny 2–3mm button on the top, slightly to the left of the centre of the device in portrait mode. Pressing with my finger I couldn’t press it down. Still pressing with my fingernail, I could press it down, but it still didn’t do anything. In slight despair at this point, I even asked an assistant for help. He kindly explained that device had crashed, force quit’ed the hung application, and returned it to the home screen. I didn’t catch what he did, even though I was looking. He asked if I would like further information. I said thanks, but I’d seen enough…and walked away

In summary, with no agenda, looking for iPad alternatives; all the ones I tried offered a bad experience. Maybe I missed the good ones, but after trying three...I walked away.