Ever since Apple's iPad was publicly announced, media and geeks have been looking to and fro for alternate tablets that can counter its buzz. None have matched the well-honed PR machine from Cupertino, but few tech companies could resist either announcing their own tablet devices or floating the idea of creating a tablet device (We're looking at you GOOG!).

Does this round of tablet fever bode differently than the last round of Windows Tablet PCs? Everyone involved sure hopes so.

Different this time is better hardware and a better experience baseline -- hello, iPhone OS! Rather than painfully shoe-horn Windows onto a new PC form factor, the industry is putting together lots of different combinations -- Android, Chrome OS, Win7, Linux twinned with capacitive touch screens refined on smartphones or even, old-school pen-based inputs. Reviewing PC World's list of 15 would-be iPad rivals showcases the vibrant hopes and aspirations of old-school PC brands -- HP, Dell, Lenovo, new school netbook brands -- Asus, software giants -- Google and Microsoft, and countless new players jumping into, what they hope will be, the most lucrative new category created since the MP3 player.

But aside from all the spec comparison and screen measurements and ooo-ing and ahh-ing about this tech or that feature, no one seems to have talked much about what their creations actually do for consumers. Sure, Android does give new entrants a ready-made base software, but base software is not necessarily an appealing consumer experience. Tablet PCs clearly demonstrated that. Certainly, the nearly two years of Android in the marketplace has refined how Android works for smartphones, but that experience doesn't directly translate for a tablet.

Android has demonstrated rapid improvement, but its consumer appeal is still, at best, second to the iPhone. Geeks love the less restrictive terms, but does that translate into a better user experience? The Market is, charitably, rough. The media experience is non-existent and requires geekery just to make it work. Navigating your SD memory card or downloading a third party PC app to copy media files IS geeky. The content acquisition is nowhere. So, strip out the phone, enlarge the screen and where is the Android tablet?

For all of the hue and cry about Apple's secretive and restrictive ways, the iPad knows what it's all about. It's a media consumption device. Video, web, books and games take center stage and they shine. The App Store offerings for iPad are just getting started but the polished initial offerings suggest that new classes of use that are unforeseen -- just as games snuck onto its handheld brethren, the iPhone and iPod Touch -- may add to Apple's advantage in the near future.

For the myriad of competing tablets, what is their raison d'être? Once clear, do the tablets deliver with a pleasing finish? Will tablets this time suffer the same fate as the star-crossed Tablet PC? Will it merely be a geek plaything, never breaking into the mass market? Without carrier subsidies and carrier marketing, how will tablets be shopped for? Will consumers have the same patience they had with their smartphones without the a two-year contract to cement the relationship?

For the tablet ecosystem to thrive, the devices will need a lot more thought and polish. Not around industrial design (though it doesn't hurt), but around experience design. Tablet competitors will need to figure out valuable new uses and compelling ways to deliver them. It's really about content and software. And in this respect, no erstwhile competitor comes close to the Apple. Until tablet dreamers address this, they'll be fighting over a less and less relevant piece of an burgeoning market.

(photo courtesy of Apple)