As most compatibility-conscious web developers understand, it is harder than ever to deploy one website that looks great across the increasingly diverse viewing platforms we see today.

From 9 year-old Internet Explorer 6 (still almost 10% market) to cutting-edge mobile devices like the iPad and mobile phones, there are almost a dozen rendering engines and a number of view sizes.

Mobile browsing now accounts for 1.3% of all browsing, which on a global scale is significant web traffic. It's enough for many high-traffic websites to create a separate mobile- or touch-optimized version of their site. Mobile devices have a much smaller screen-size, less speed and bandwidth, no mouse and often a touch-interface.

By contrast, desktop and laptop computers are getting faster with more memory and can handle heavy multi-media.

The challenge on websites with a moderate-budget is to create a design and layout that functions well on the many desktop web browsers (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari) and yet looks great on Netbook and iPad devices (10-inch screens) and even mobile phones.

This is no small task and it does drive up the cost of website development, but it is also gives an advantage to those of us that stay current, adhere to web standards and produce quality websites that look great in modern browsers and degrade gracefully for older and less powerful platforms.

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.