Hunt for the next tablet

I think the time is getting ripe for a consolidation, with rumors of an iPad from Apple. There have been a lot of super-similar products in the market now around the concept of the old Tablet PC.

• Tablet PC - The age-old giant which has still not caught the fancy and for some reason hasn't gone down in price as well
• Touch-sensitive phones - iPhone and Blackberry Storm are leading the pack with the way we interact with touch screens
• Netbook - The recent entrant in the notebook market, which for some reason that I cannot imagine, does not have a foldable display OR a touch-sensitive screen
• E-book Reader - An anomaly in evolution, Kindle and Sony are good for one thing - reading books, and that too in black and white.

It doesn't really take too much smartitude to find that all these products revolve around one uber-product - an A4-sized tablet PC with a multi-touch LED-based screen with nice, readable fonts.

Bigger question is, why are other companies waiting for Apple to innovate and take the market in this area and not beating it to the punch themselves?