Having a ITouch for a while, I am very un-impressed with CPU, software defects (the apps crash -- even ones on the device from the factory), security, and web connectivity.
From what I have see and heard about the IPad, it suffers from similar issues.
My wife asked for a tablet this Christmas and we looked at the IPad, Kindle Fire, and Nook.
The Nook was un-impressive as it only allows you 1GB space for non-B&N content.
The Fire is interesting, but we are in Europe often and it seems the Fire is zone locked. Also, see:
http://video.msn.com?vid=d1a91e3b-8d...ermalink:uuids.
What I have been watching out for is the new nvidia tegra 3 CPU in a tablet (see:
http://www.tegra3.org). It's the first quad core CPU for a tablet.
Just today Amazon started selling the ASUS TF201 (
http://www.amazon.com/TF201-B1-GR-Tr...524162&sr=1-4). It's about the same price you are looking at, can be updated to Ice Cream Sandwich (the latest Android OS), has very good graphics and gives us space for videos, music, etc.
Here is the difference between dual cores and quad cores:
http://gigaom.com/mobile/nvidia-tegr...re-demo-video/
Win8 on tablet:
http://www.netbooknews.com/27326/nvi...ing-windows-8/
So, you can guess what the wife is going to get for Christmas.