Nearly 30 Android tablets are expected to be unveiled at this year's Computex show in Taipei. How will they affect Apple's iPad?

Since the rollout of the iPhone, "app" has become the computing world's dominant buzzword. Pretty soon we'll be referring to Microsoft Word as an "app." But an app is actually just a small piece of code designed to make portable devices more useful. Most apps are just gimmicks, games, or other amusements. Still, at least for now, Apple has the most, so people are more likely to buy its products.

Years ago, Apple realized that it was behind in terms of the software warsthere just weren't as many programs that ran on its platform. It never caught up, but it has long since reached the critical mass of programs needed to sustain a platform. The Mac is now more popular than ever.

This is something we have to realize about the iPhone and iPadyou don't need as many apps as Apple has, but you need more than a few (i.e. Palm, Nokia). This simple fact is lost on many vendors. You get lots of apps by doing what Google has done: Seed developers. Chum the waters.

Apple fell into an amazing advantage with the new lunacy over pad computers. It began by developing an online store for the iPod. With the iPhone, it morphed into an app store, accumulating apps that could be transferred to the iPad. Apple is literally three or more years ahead of the competition. But the boys at Google pulled a fast one by changing the model. By going open source and using multiple vendors in a Wild West scenario, Android is catching up fast. Think about it. If Google had done an "open source" iTunes clone for an iPod clone, it would have done some serious damage to Apple.

So, what happens this week? Computex in Taipei. We are expecting to upwards of 30 Android tablets from all sorts of companies. In fact, it will probably be considered the theme of the show by the blogosphere. It will take a lot of attention away from the iPad, but it won't result in immediate inroads until there is a major increase in apps. But it will introduce a few other variables that Apple needs to deal with, namely out-and-out rip offs of the iPad found all over China.

Apple has chosen to make the iPad in Asia, where rampant counterfeiting is the rule of the day. And while there is supposed to be security to prevent this, many counterfeits are thought to actually be overruns from the factories where the originals are made. This means the exact same product is going out two different doors. The Chinese are very much into the prestige of having a device like the iPad. But they are practical too. An exact copy with the right logo would be a lot cheaper and would have the same personal impact.

Apple will be under assault for the next year or two from every angle. Meanwhile, what will the effect be from the pad onslaught coming out of Taiwan? The first thing it will do is reconfirm that this is the new trend in computers: keyboardless smudge computing. But this brings us to the biggest, most important question: will there be a pad-specific killer app that will require us all to buy one?

Besides browsing in front of the TV, I can't envision one. Ideally, it should platform specific, very cool, time saving, and must-have. It could even be a game. Numerous killer app games have appeared over the years to enhance the sale of one console over another. Pads need something similar.

So, don't get too worked up over what comes out of Computex. They will be about the hardware, but it takes more than hardware to sell hardware. It will be months from now before we've digested this show and the pad phenomenon.