At Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference on 12 July, CEO Steve Ballmer told partners to expect new Windows 7 slates by the end of this year. The new mobile computing form-factor that was pioneered with Apple's iPad earlier this year has seen world-wide success and competitors are racing to catch up.

A "Slate" as it has been dubbed, exists somewhere between the touch-screen tablet pc concept and the low-power, compact Netbooks that were best sellers in 2009. In that space, the iPad is the first of its kind and the only products currently competing for the iPad's market share are screen-readers geared for eBook presentation.

Microsoft is not the only one with the iPad in its sites. Google has been working on it's Chrome OS for Netbooks and Slate-like devices and there has even been talk of the Android mobile-phone platform being used on future Slates.

In one form or another, expect to see iPad-like devices from a number of manufacturers begin to hit the market soon. As we have seen before with the iPad and the iPhone, Apple sets the trend and others soon follow with devices of lower cost and possibly even more features.