For those who haven't heard HP is now out of the tablet business and there is no more of the TouchPad. 

By all accounts it wasn't all bad....

VerdictHP creates a great generation-one tablet and brings it to market right when the generation-two rivals are hitting the scene. If you dislike Apple's arrogance and Android's Windows-of-the-tablet-world strategy, you'll live with the TouchPad's media playback limitations, revelling in it as a neat internet tool. If you're are WebOS die-hard, ditto
http://www.reghardware.com/2011/07/18/review_tablets_hp_touchpad/ 

... but not great either I guess. And is was only HP's first try. 

But seriously how hard is it to make something that is competitive with the iPad?

If you take out the 'Apple factor' the iPad is lighter, thinner and has a better battery life than any Android rival I have read about. These are the really important features. 

The build quality, processor speed, and screen are also as good if not better than the Android et al rivals.

Sure the iPad has a proprietary connector and doesn't have SD card support but that's the same as the Galaxy Tab. Ok, the Transformer has a doc that can turn it into a $850-900 net book with under 100GB of memory; wow that's impressive.

OK, there is no Flash video but with all the apps out there for various video on demand and such it isn't really a crippling omission.

Hell, even the price difference is negligible, less than $150.

So when is the rest of the world going to catch up with Apple? Why are they behind in the first place? And when are they going to start seriously undercutting apple on price? My Motorola Defy cost almost third what an iPhone does and it is way above a third as functional. When this is the case for tablets, I'll be buying one. 

Ideas?