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Motorola most likely iPad rival

Motorola seems to be the company best positioned to take on Apple and the iPad. Especially if it gets some help from its partner, Verizon.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
2 min read
Act one, the Droid X. Act two, a Motorla-Verizon tablet?
Act one, the Droid X. Act two, a Motorla-Verizon tablet? Motorola

Who will give the iPad a run for its money? I would bet my bottom dollar on Motorola, or better yet, the dynamic duo of Motorola and Verizon.

The BlackBerry "Black Pad" from RIM, or Google gPad via HTC, or even or the self-proclaimed LG Optimus Tablet dark horse make for riveting speculation (among many other rumors or announcements), but Motorola has shown itself to be the most capable and consistent rival to the iPhone, which was a precursor to the iPad in many ways.

Motorola's Droid was one of the first high-end smartphones to emerge as a bona fide rival to the iPhone. Then came the Droid X, another capable competitor. And most recently, the Droid 2. And I would submit that the Droid X is a dry run for a tablet, with its galactic (by smartphone standards) 4.3-inch diagonal screen. HTC, of course, is a major force too. But any Google-HTC marketing model along the lines of the now-defunct Google Nexus One won't, by itself, rival the iPad. (The Dell Streak isn't much bigger than the Droid X and, so, isn't a tablet by iPad standards.)

If Motorola can get it right and deliver an aesthetically appealing (read: sleek, good fit-and-finish) and highly functional (read: snappy, user-friendly interface--and long battery life), people would buy it in large numbers. Why? Despite the unending--and well deserved--hoopla surrounding the iPad, there's always plenty of room for a decent alternative, as the Droid proves. And, surprisingly, no decent iPad alternative exists (i.e., slapping Android on a sloppy clone of the iPad is not a viable strategy against the iPad).

That could change very quickly, however. Android (or the Chrome OS) on a 10-inch screen, Adobe Flash, access to Verizon's FiOS cable service, dual cameras, with a powerful but fuel-efficient Texas Instruments or Nvidia processor inside? Bring it on.