How Intel changed its tune on tablets

    She insists that Intel is still amped for its tablets. "What Paul was saying at the earnings announcement was a direct commentary on what we're hearing from analysts and some of the media coverage. I think we were just trying to calm some of the chatter around the fact that this was going to indirectly or negatively affect laptop or netbook sales.

    From an internal perspective, we continue to be excited about the market. We're definitely a player today and we will be in the future."

    Intel will probably come out with great new chips for tablets, but while they're innovating to get something into a device people will buy, consumers are buying iPads. That gives Apple a valuable jump on the market, and it stands to reason that the high-flying Android phone market is also full of consumers who would strongly consider buying an Android tablet as those begin to hit the shelves for this year's holiday shopping season.

    Maybe the lesson here is that products that depend on the adoption of open source software can take off once consumers get comfortable with the archetype. The iPhone begat iPads, and Android phones may begat successful Android tablets like the hotly anticipated Samsung Galaxy Tab. Foremost, the tablet market, it seems, needed a poster child to evolve from smartphones and single purpose e-book readers. Now that it has one in the iPad, the question is how much space is left on the poster for anyone else.