Pssst...Wanna Buy a Cheap Tablet?

When the Apple iPad burst forth on the scene - the first of the current generation of tablet computers - the bar was set pretty high. Aesthetically and functionally, it's a slick piece of gear and even though it is fairly expensive, starting at around $500 US, it gives the impression of being a quality product.

Most of the other tablet makers use some version Google's Android OS, which has been criticized as not on par with Apple's iOS, which powers the iPad, iPod, etc. However, with the latest version of Android - version 4, aka "Ice Cream Sandwich" - they seem to have polished things to the point where it's usable and attractive. Windows 8 tablets, if and when they arrive, will be likely subject to the so-called "Windows tax".

The other side of the equation is hardware, and if you are purchasing a "cheap" tablet, you would logically expect to make some sacrifices in the level of power, speed, storage, etc. Even so, the Amazon Kindle Fire seems like a pretty decent compromise for a $200 product - it has a 7 inch display, a dual core CPU, 512MB RAM and 8GB of storage. An Apple iPad has an (almost) 10 inch screen, a dual core CPU, 512MB RAM, and 16GB storage (and up).

Of course, just stacking specs against each other does not tell the whole story, and in fact the Kindle Fire is getting a software update to iron out some "performance issues", but one wonders what a $100 tablet might be like?

In truth, there are some tablets available for around $100, but they mostly appear to be pretty wretched - poor specs, and invariably running prehistoric versions of Android. However, there may be an interesting one on the horizon- from China, running Android 4 yet.