Well, it’s about time. With barely any competition in the tablet computer market, the iPad has had a pretty long head start on everyone else. Not that there hasn’t been reports of all sorts of tablets out there — from Android, WebOS, Windows 7 and even Blackberry, with its supposed Blackpad. But now, it looks like we could finally have a real contender to battle it out with Apple.

According to the DownloadSquad, a source has the nitty gritty on a Google tablet sporting the Chrome OS. The search giant showed off the operating system earlier this year at its Google IO, its annual developers convention. Supposedly Google have contracted with HTC — which is pretty much the leading manufacturer of Android phones the and maker of Google’s own Nexus One — to produce the device for release on November 26th, aka Black Friday.

There are some interesting things to note with this rumored device: First, it may be cheaper than the iPad — possibly even free — on a data contract. Second, the carrier looks like it will be Verizon, a solid network from the nation’s number-one cellular provider. Third, the DownloadSquad (not the source) speculates that it could boast NVidia’s fast, robust Tegra 2 chip, as well as a 1280×720 multitouch display and 2GB RAM. (In contrast, the iPad has a custom A4 processor, with a 1024×768 screen and 256 MB RAM.) The site also believes that the Chrome tablet could also boast 32+GB SSD card support, WiFi/Bluetooth and 4G connectivity, GPS, camera, and maybe even a multi-card reader.

As for the operating system, let’s take a look at the kind of experience the software could offer. If you’ve used Chrome browser on your desktop or laptop, then you’ve basically used the Chrome OS. It’s based heavily on the web browser, but will feature an app store for web apps optimized for touchscreens. At Google IO, the company demo’ed Facebook, GMail, Pandora and even Tweetdeck web apps made for Chrome.

Wait — but aren’t web apps what Apple was trying to push in the first place? Remember way back in 2007, when the first iPhone came out? Everyone was baffled that it didn’t run onboard software, as in third-party apps (even phones like the Razr had apps. They were horrible, but they still had them). Now, we know that these third-party apps are big business and the fuel that feeds Cupertino’s hyper popular App Store, but at the time, Jobs deemed them unnecessary. He said the web could offer just as good of an experience. (Ironic, no?)

So my question is: How can Google hope to try this and win where Apple didn’t? Maybe the search company found a better way to make web apps seem more like onboard apps. But unless this is done with an amazingly rich set of features, it would be hard to fool even the most non techy consumer.

Come Black Friday, we’ll see how much of an impact this could have on the iPad, if any. And whether Google’s decision to run with Chrome — instead of Android — was a successful idea or not.

What do you think guys? Does this Chrome tablet have what it takes to dominate the iPad’s marketshare? (I’m assuming just the mere fact that it will be on Verizon is a huge deal maker for some.) Let us know in the comments.

Via: The DownloadSquad