Dell, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) took turns taking jabs at Apple's (NASDAQ: APPL) iPad this week, prompting accusations of desperation from all corners of the blogosphere.

Dell's Andy Lark, global head of marketing for large enterprises and public organizations, predicted that the wildly popular iPad ultimately will not be a successful tool for enterprise users. The tablet computer is far ahead of rival devices in both the enterprise and consumer markets, but eventually its price, complexity and proprietary technology will make it less appealing to businesses, Lark said.

"Apple is great if you've got a lot of money and live on an island. It's not so great if you have to exist in a diverse, open, connected enterprise; simple things become quite complex," Lark said in an interview with CIO Australia, suggesting that once you buy a mouse, case and keyboard, the iPad ends up costing as much as $1600.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's Craig Mundie--who was also in Australia this week--said that he is not convinced tablet computers have a future. In Mundie's view, smartphones will evolve to serve as personal computers while laptops evolve into "portable desks," reported Asher Moses at the Sydney Morning Herald. 

"Mobile is something that you want to use while you're moving, and portable is something that you move and then use," Mundie said. "These are going to bump into one another a little bit and so today you can see tablets and pads and other things that are starting to live in the space in between. Personally I don't know whether that space will be a persistent one or not."

Dell and Microsoft weren't the only Apple competitors piling on, notes Kit Eaton at Fast Company. Hewlett-Packard senior vice president Stephen DeWitt said in an interview that Apple lacks "an inclusive philosophy of partner capabilities," and has only transactional relationships with partners. Eaton points out, however, that Apple's Joint Venture Genius solution is meant to help with enterprise customers' technological problems.

"Independent to all this seeming anti-Apple press, which conspiracy theorists may consider to have curiously coordinated timing, Apple's device just rolls on and analysts have estimated the firm has sold between 5 and 8.8 million units in the first quarter of 2011 alone," Eaton writes.

For more:
- see this article from CIO Australia
- see Asher Moses' article at the Sydney Morning Herald
- see Kit Eaton's post at FastCompany

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