>I'm about to spring for a tablet and all the choices have me confused.
>The Ipad people are like crusaders, squashing anything that doesn't come from Apple and there are so many Android devices that I don't know where to start looking.
>Cheap is a good place to start.
>Any ideas?

I am not responding as an Apple fanboy but I think this battle is over. Despite predictions of swarming competition the iPad continues to hold a market share of over 70%. The iPad will be around and will be supported for the foreseeable future. The many contenders, those who were supposed to give the iPad a run for it's money? They have barely made a dent. HP's tablet, a distant second in market share, has been discontinued. HP said this is not a space where we can lead the market. Salud to them for that. That is exactly the attitude a world class company should have. Procter & Gamble, a world class company by any definition (and Steve Ballmer's first employer -- he was a marketeer, imagine that), may have invented the idea. They said, and showed, if our product isn't #1 or a promising #2 in its category we dump it.


PS -- FWIW in the ancient debate over Apple, another data point to consider --

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/opinion/nocera-what-makes-steve-jobs-great.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=columnists%20ipad&st=cse