Asus Has An Apple iPad Clone Too

two million mark in less than two months

Last week it was Dell, giving a sneak peak at its upcoming Dell Streak tablet, the computer giant's bid to rival the iPad. And today its AsusTek, or Asus, that hopes to eat into some of Apple's spoils with the unfortunately named Eee Pad.

While the Eee Pad from Asus isn't expected to hit stores until the first quarter of next year (Dell will get a head start among iPad wannabes with the Google Android-based Dell Streak tablet hitting the U.K. this month and the U.S. later in the summer), the Taiwan-based company is already telling The Wall Street Journal that its iPad answer will run Windows 7 and hit the $399 to $449 sweet spot. It's also going to run on an Intel Core 2 Duo chip, and support Adobe Flash, a feature that iPad rivals are quickly highlighting as Steve Jobs & Co. refuse to support Adobe Flash.

As for size, the Asus Eee Pad clocks in a little bigger than the iPad, rocking 10-inch and 12-inch screens compared to the iPad's 9.7 inches. Meanwhile, Dell's Streak boasts a compact 5-inch display.

And, to further try and steal Apple's touch-screen tablet share, Asus is looking to launch its own application store around the Eee Pad, a jab at Apple's widely popular App Store.

The Journal reported that the 10-inch Asus Eee Pad will be aimed at users looking to touch-screen tablets for casual Web surfing and multimedia; while the 12-inch model will tie in full Windows 7 Home Premium software and be targeted at users who want to create content on their touch-screen tablets.

With the unveiling of the Eee Pad, Asus joins not only Dell, but a host of other computer makers looking to knock the touch-screen tablet crown off of the Apple iPad. Since iPad fever rocked the tech world. Acer and HP, for example, have also thrown their hats into the increasingly crowded tablet ring with Acer planning Google Chrome OS-based devices and HP readying the launch of the HP Slate, in bids to rule the burgeoning empire built by Apple.