iPad 3 could launch in early 2012, but the slew of competing tablets released this fall and anything that's already out there are having a tough time competing with the first two iPads. But, iPad has been around long enough to have carved a path that others can follow, if not create on their own. That means any device not called iPad is simply that, it wants to be the best, but no company has come close yet.

With that in mind, there are five devices out there that surpass the glut of lower priced tablets out there that simply want to look like the iPad, but not cost $500. Amazon's Kindle-Fire comes out in November, and although it is smaller than iPad and only works on Wi-Fi, it's only $200 and comes with all that Amazon content. It's already considered the number one competitor to iPad just because of its impressive pre-sale numbers. Motorola on the other hand, already tried to take on iPad with the Xoom tablet. Motorola has a good reputation in the smartphone market, and they are trying to take advantage of it by releasing the Xoom 2 tablet. It's an improvement over the Xoom, so it makes the list as the number two iPad competitor. Number three on the list just won Gadget of the Year from Stuff Magazine, and we know they make decent laptops, so the Asus 10' Eee Pad Transformer gets the number three. Start the slideshow to see the list and find out if any of these tablet computers might be something you want to try.

Let us know in the comments which of these devices you think has the brightest future.

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Amazon Kindle-Fire
Amazon Kindle-Fire Reuters
Motorola Xoom 2
Motorola Xoom 2 Motorola
Asus Eee Pad Transformer
Asus Eee Pad Transformer Asus
Grid 10 by Fusion Garage
Grid 10 by Fusion Garage Reuters
HP Slate 2
HP Slate 2 Hewlett Packard
Smartphone Ipad Ipad Smartphone