HP Zeen, Best Buy Rocketfish and other newer iPad rivals

Apple has been a company known for innovating in niche markets. They did it for MP3 players with the iPod and again for the smartphone market with the iPhone. And now they’re setting their sights on mobile computing by introducing their wonderful new device, the unfortunately named iPad.

But the launch of a new Apple product does not come without problems. On the one hand, there are the Apple fans who worship Steve Jobs as the second coming of Christ, and would be willing enough to part with their hard-earned dollars just to try out the latest Apple gadgets. And on the other hand, there are cautious and tech-savvy buyers who find Apple devices a bit lacking in technical features. They are not quick to accept the words of Steve Job as the truth of the gospel.

But wherever you side with the Apple debate, you can’t deny the company’s influence, particularly in drawing the tech industry’s attention to its chosen endeavors. Ever since Apple released the iPad, the entire industry has been focused on tablets. And with good reason: the iPad has sold more than 3 million units since its launch.

Now we have companies like HP and Best Buy that want a slice of Apple’s pie by introducing their own brand of iPad-killers. The first of the bunch is the HP Zeen. Now there has been no official press release from HP regarding this mystery product. But details of FCC filings made by the company have been uncovered.

Various sources have confirmed that the HP Zeen is an Android-based tablet that focuses on electronic reading and has the ability to connect directly to an HP printer without the need for a computer. There are a lot of rumors surrounding this device. But whatever the final specs are, I think there’s enough evidence to say this exists and HP is definitely working on it. And that in itself is newsworthy enough.

Also consider the fact that this could be a separate entity from your other tablet PC, the HP Slate, with Windows 7 in mind. That means HP is working on not just one, but at least two potential iPad killers.

Best Buy, on the other hand, is also introducing its own tablet, the Rocketfish. Best Buy CTO and Geek Squad founder Robert Stephens has been tweeting about the device. He is also said to be running a version of Android 2.2. The images of the tablet show that it is slightly smaller than the iPad.

No hardware specs have been released for the device yet, and it probably hasn’t even made it out of the prototype stage. This early leak must be some kind of viral marketing to create an early buzz for the product.

The iPad virtually created the tablet market, and now HP and Best Buy plan to be major players in it as well. Nothing ever went wrong with a little healthy competition, and ultimately, with a variety of solid choices, it’s the consumers who would come out on top.