So, since we are talking about business pads anyway, we might as well talk about the prospective Google entry in the field, suspiciously recently described conceptually on the official Chromium OS site.

The information is so speculative as to be worthless other than as a general indicator of the direction that a Google tablet might take, but on the whole, having another major player in the market is no bad thing for businesses. On the other hand, I don't find Google's commitment to stability and support for enterprise products to be any more impressive than Apple's, so instead of potentially having a solution catered to their needs, CIOs faced with a Google tablet would find themselves down in the trenches fighting to get ahead of consumer technology creeping into the business.

The question then becomes, would consumers find advantages in a Chrome-based tablet over the iPad? A recent post from Todd Bishop at TechFlash describing his perspectives on Android versus his iPhone might be instructive.

The Droid feels like a good mobile phone that has been given a bigger screen, and randomly injected with great features. The iPhone feels like a well-thought-out, multipurpose Internet communications and entertainment companion that, oh, by the way, happens to let you make calls, too.

This dynamic might well transfer to the Google pad, as well. While the iPad is a stylistic exercise in providing a multipurpose, lightweight computing utility device (for lack of a better term), the Google pad may prove to be a more computer-like device that is more open, less carefully designed, but more intentionally oriented to PC-like tasks. That could be a boon for business users. The variation sure to be available in hardware platforms is also an advantage for enterprise users, as TechCrunch's Jason Kincaid points out. More diverse manufacturers will lead to different price points and feature sets, just as has happened with Android phones, making it more likely that business users will find a combination that is particularly well-suited to their specific needs.