It seems every day we hear about another manufacturer who’s working on their very own tablet PC. It’s going to have a fairly large capacitive touchscreen display, Google’s Android operating system and a host of other features that will make it useful (at least about as much as your typical netbook, anyway). But does anyone think of new things anymore? At least one of them, as it turns out.

Motorola, maker of some of today’s best Android-based devices, is reportedly working with Verizon on an upcoming Android-based tablet TV. You read that right, Moto’s upcoming tablet offering won’t just be a PC. It’ll also be a TV. Granted, the only real difference between it and the myriad of other tablets on the horizon will probably only be a built-in TV tuner, but if it’s worth noting, it’s worth noting.

Motorola and Google are mum about this rumored project so far, but it has been reported that Motorola’s tablet TV will support Flash, have 2 built-in cameras (one for taking photos and the other for video conferencing) and can be expected to be thinner and lighter than the Apple iPad.

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You might have already heard this one before, but as anyone who closely follows happenings in the tech sector might expect, several companies are already working on their own tablet PC offerings with either the open-source mobile Android OS or a mobile-optimized version of Windows 7. Samsung is among those first expected to deliver such a mobile device, and their upcoming product has been identified in the past as the Samsung Galaxy Tab (pictured above). Today, Reuters has posted news further confirming this as part of Samsung’s future plans, mentioning that Samsung’s tablet PC will have a 7-inch display (compared to the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen). Near the end of its news post, Reuters also mentioned that LG Electronics will also deliver a tablet PC with Android OS, and that it will be released in the fourth quarter following Samsung’s third quarter release date for their tablet.

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I really want to see a new and improved Windows 7 tablet PC to come around soon. Don’t you? I personally don’t see much point in a tablet if it runs the same operating system as my aging smartphone. So far, Microsoft has kept my hopes up. They have confirmed that they are currently working on Windows 7 tablet PCs, and today Steve Ballmer talked a bit more about Microsoft’s tablet PC plans. Ballmer was quoted as saying, “We’re in the process of doing that as we speak. We’re working with our hardware partners. We’re tuning Windows 7.” He made it clear that Microsoft will be sticking to Windows 7 for their upcoming tablets, and made it sound like their intent was to take the desktop and reshape it to fit in the form factor of a slate. Sounds like a lot of work, but if done right, it will definitely be worth it. It’s worth nothing that this has already been done unsuccessfully with older versions of Windows in the past, but with Windows 7 and better hardware, this holds a lot of promise today.

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Besides putting out netbooks like the recently reviewed Acer Aspire One D260, Acer is also hard at work on their upcoming Android-based tablet PCs. The Taiwan-based computer maker will offer Android-based tablet PCs that come in two different sizes (7-inches and 10-inches) by the fourth quarter of this year, and DigiTimes reports that Acer is already talking with mobile telecom carriers for cooperation to market the two models. The version of Android that will be pre-installed on these two tablet PCs will be Froyo (version 2.2) and they might be launched alongside Acer’s first e-book readers or around the same time frame anyway.

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So it’s mid-2010, there are a lot of Android-powered tablet PCs in the market, and then there’s the iOS-powered alternative, Apple’s iPad. Many people are waiting for either a lower price for the 3G-enabled iPad, or a “better” Android tablet to become available. Still, others are waiting for yet another kind of tablet. One that’s powered by a real desktop operating system in the form of Windows 7. Yes, I’m talking about the Windows 7 tablets.
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