Tablet computers are slated to make the most headlines at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. Just about everyone who sells smartphones or PCs will make a tablet-related announcement at the show, but analysts don't expect any of them to truly rival the iPad, reports Glenn Chapman at Agence France Presse.

We can expect between 40 and 80 iPad "wannabees" to be ballyhooed at the show, Fortune's Philip Elmer-DeWitt writes. But most of the announcements will be about products coming out down the road, seeing as three of the most promising tablet-related technologies--Research in Motion's (NASDAQ: RIMM) Blackberry Tablet OS, Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) "Honeycomb" OS (the latest iteration of Android), and Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) touchscreen-enabled Windows--are not believed to be ready for prime time, Elmer-DeWitt notes.

RIM's 7-inch BlackBerry Playbook is sure to make headlines, but the tablet that is generating the most buzz so far is a 10-inch Android-based device from Motorola, which is rumored to be named Xoom, writes PC Magazine's Tim Gideon. It will use the Honeycomb OS, which is optimized for tablet computers, unlike the Android OS that currently runs Samsung's Galaxy Tab.

"The arrival of Honeycomb, however, is truly the most significant development in non-Apple tablet devices since the category began," Gideon writes. "But that hasn't stopped a throng of manufacturers from making Android 2.2-based tablets and selling them at price-points slightly to significantly lower than the iPad prior to Honeycomb's availability."

For more:
- see Glenn Chapman's article at Agence France Presse via Yahoo.com
- see Philip Elmer-DeWitt's post at Fortune
- see Tim Gideon's article at PC Magazine

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