Will anyone be able to compete with Apple’s revolutionary iPad?

“If you want to buy a consumer-friendly tablet computer today and you don’t want to purchase Apple’s iPad, you’re pretty much out of luck,” John D. Sutter reports for CNN.

MacDailyNews Take: If you want to buy a consumer-friendly tablet computer today, why the hell wouldn’t you want to purchase Apple’s iPad? What, did you hit your head or something?

Sutter continues, “The iPad currently has no real competitors, and the touch-screen computer is so far ahead of the market that it has some gadget makers running back to the drawing boards, according to technology industry analysts. ‘In essence, what Apple has done is created a wake-up call to the rest of the industry — that they need to look at what they’re offering,’ said David Daoud, research director for the firm IDC. ‘They raised the bar significantly.'”

MacDailyNews Take: Apple. The alarm clock of the clueless.

Sutter continues, “Tech analysts still expect as many as two dozen different tablet computers to go on sale before the end of the year. But they say it’s questionable whether any of the devices will be able to replicate the iPad experience, which includes not only hardware but also a phone-like operating system, a touch-screen interface and a robust app store.”

MacDailyNews Take: “A phone-like operating system.” Yet another paradigm defined for the world by Apple. (Yes, despite its now-outmoded name, Apple’s iPhone OS (OS X) is much more than a “phone-like” OS. It really does need a new name, Apple.)

Sutter continues, “Meanwhile, it appears that some of the most-talked-about iPad competitors may be getting retooled to better compete with Apple’s high-profile gadget. The HP Slate and the Microsoft Courier — two prototypes of iPad-like devices — were both expected to go on sale later this year.”

MacDailyNews Take: Exactly who expected that and do they have any cash? We ask because we’ve just taken ownership of a very nice bridge in Brooklyn and…

Sutter continues, “Apple’s success is ‘causing a lot of tablet entrants to rethink what they’re bringing to market and how it’s being used by consumers,’ said Van Baker, an analyst at Gartner Inc.”

MacDailyNews Take: What else is new? Steve Jobs defined the personal computer (three times so far, maybe four: Apple II, Mac, Mac OS X, and perhaps iPad) — the portable media player and online media store (iPod and iTunes), the so-called “smartphone” (iPhone), the Multi-Touch™ user interface (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad), and the tablet (iPad).

Sutter continues, “Baker’s company predicted that, of the 10.5 million tablet computers he expects to be sold this year, the majority will be from Apple. On Monday, Apple announced it had sold 1 million iPads in the 28 days since the gadget went on sale.”

MacDailyNews Take: Another analyst who’s forgotten to factor in Christmas and Apple’s imminent international iPad rollout.

Sutter continues, “Other tablet makers will have to get in the game soon to have any chance of competing with the Cupertino, California, company, which also makes the popular iPhone and iPod, said Ashok Kumar, senior technology analyst at the investment group Rodman & Renshaw. ‘You need to have a product on the shelf by fall to make the holiday deadline,’ he said. ‘If you miss that window of opportunity, you essentially give Apple an insurmountable lead.'”

MacDailyNews Take: Surely Eric T. Mole can have his boys, along with HTC or some other collection of too many cooks, shit something out by Christmas for the morbidly befuddled market, right? Barring patent infringement injunctions, of course.

Sutter continues, “Leslie Fiering, a researcher at Gartner, said as many as two dozen consumer-friendly tablet computers — also sometimes called slate computers — will debut by the end of the year. It’s unclear who the main competitors will be, she said, but it may take more than a year for other companies to create a product “ecosystem” that is as useful as Apple’s.”

MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, it’ll probably take more than a “year.” (Hoots of laughter ring throughout the cavernous hall of the palatial MacDailyNews HQ.)

Sutter continues, “Daoud, from IDC, said he doesn’t expect any iPad alternatives this year, in part because the iPad has been so successful. He expects Apple to come out with a new version of the iPad before another tech company takes its first swipe at the idea.”

MacDailyNews Take: Sing it, Roy!

Sutter continues, “It’s unclear exactly what the leading rivals to the iPad will look like, and who will make them, the analysts said. But one thing is clear: They will have some catching up to do.”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “silverwarloc” for the heads up.]