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There’s absolutely no evidence that consumers desperately want touchscreen tablets that fill the gap we hadn’t really known existed between smartphones and traditional laptops. But PC and electronics makers are desperate for a new product category to market, and so 2010 is shaping up to be the year of the tablet, like it or not.

While I’m fairly certain that Apple’s much-hyped iPad is going to sell pretty well, that’s because it’s a flashy new product from Apple that has a lot more appeal than the last flop from the company. I’m less certain that the dozens of me-too tablets running Windows CE, Google Android, Windows 7, and various forms of Linux stand a chance in the marketplace. I’m not saying they won’t. I honestly just don’t know, and I’m awfully curious to find out.

But if there’s one company that has a pretty big stake in the game, it’s ARM. The company’s chip designs are used in all sorts of technology from companies including Freescale, Qualcomm, NVIDIA, and even Apple. And aside from a handful of tablets designed to run Windows 7, it looks like most of the keyboard-less tablets on the horizon will be built around ARM-based chips.

In fact, Computer World reports that ARM officials expect more than 50 tablets with ARM chips to launch this year. That’s not counting the smartphones, eBook readers, and smartbooks using the company’s designs.

If you’re wondering why you haven’t actually seen many of these devices in stores yet, it’s because they simply aren’t there yet. But by the second half of 2010, it’s likely that you won’t be able to walk into a mobile wireless store or big box electronics retail store without seeing a few tablets. The big question is whether you’ll see the same thing come 2011.

Most netbooks aren’t really designed with gaming in mind. The Intel Atom processor and integrated graphics found in most netbooks just isn’t up to the task of handling 3D graphics at high frame rates. But there are definitely some games that run well even on older netbooks. I think it’s a bit early to put Starcraft 2 into that category, but the folks at Netbooks Spain have loaded up a beta version of the hotly anticipated real time strategy game on an MSI Wind U100. And you know what? You can play it.

With the game resolution set to 1024 x 768 pixels, you’ll only get about 5 to 11 frames per second. But if you adjust the graphics to 800 x 600, you can get 15 to 20 FPS. That’s certainly not great, but the game is definitely playable at that speed.

It’s also worth noting that this is a pre-release version of StarCraft II. It’s possible that the final version could run better on netbooks like the MSI Wind U100. I suspect it will run even better on machines such as the Asus Eee PC 1201PN with NVIDIA ION graphics.

The IdeaPad S10-3t is the first 10 inch convertible tablet style netbook from Lenovo. The Wall Street Journal reviewed the netbook recently, but you could kind of tell that the reviewer hadn’t spent a lot of time using netbooks. Now Engadget’s Joanna Stern has given the S10-3t a go, and there are few people that have as much time playing with netbooks as she has.

So what’s her verdict?

Joanna says the netbook is slim and light for a convertible tablet, but she wasn’t that impressed with the keyboard or touchpad (with integrated buttons). She says the capacitive multitouch screen was reasonably responsive with Windows 7 Home Premium. But the viewing angles weren’t all that great.

The demo unit Joanna tested had a shiny new 1.83GHz Intel Atom N470 processor. But you’d never know it from most of the benchmarks Joanna run.It doesn’t look like the S10-3t is substantially slower than other Pine Trail netbooks. But it’s not really any faster either.

Asus is bringing out an updated version of the Eee PC 1005PE laptop. The new model will feature a new case design with a painted textured lid much like the one found on the Eee PC 1001P. In other words, goodbye glossy lid, hello fingerprint-resistant matte cover!

Spec-wise, the Asus Eee PC 1005PE-PU27 is identical to the Eee PC 1005PE-PU17. It has the same 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 1GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive, 6 cell battery, and Windows 7 Starter Edition operating system.

Unfortunately, it also has the same 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel glossy display. Matte displays are getting harder and harder to find, and even though Asus offers the budget Eee PC 1001P with a matte screen, the 1005PE is only available with a glossy, glare-inducing display.

The Asus Eee PC 1005PE-PU27 is available for pre-order from Amazon for $389.99.

Active Media’s latest solid state disk is designed to fit into tight spaces. While most of the company’s SSDs are either 2.5 inch disks or PCIe cards, the ActiveMedia SaberTooth ZT Turbo ZIF SSD is a 1.8 inch disk that could fit into MP3 players or smaller netbooks such as the Asus Eee PC T91 or HP Mini 1000.

The disk is just 0.2 inches thick and uses a ZIF connector instead of the SATA connector used by most of its bigger siblings.

The SaberTooth ZT Turbo is available in 32GB or 64GB sizes and can handle read speeds up to 100MB/s and write speeds up to 85MB/s.

These little guys don’t come cheap though. The 64GB model sells for $290, while the 32GB SSD will set you back $170.

Netbooks with 9 inch displays were all the rage for a hot second in 2008. But now they’ve largely passed out of fashion as PC makers pump out larger models with 10 inch displays and nearly full sized keyboards. But apparently the folks at Netsee didn’t get the memo, because this South Korean company just introduced the UNC-890 netbook which looks like something straight out of mid-2008.

The Netsee UNC-890 has an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display and a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU. It also bucks the latest trend of outfitting netbooks with hard drives, and instead comes with a 32GB solid state disk.

Rounding out the specs are 1GB of RAM, WiFi, and a 3MP webcam. It measures less than an inch thick and weighs just 2 pounds.

It seems like everybody and their kid brother has a new nettop with next-generation NVIDIA ION graphics to show these days. So how do you set your super-slim and tiny desktop PC apart from the crowd? Simple. You slap a unicorn logo on the side. At least that’s what Sparkle is doing with its nettops.

The company is currently showing off a mini-desktop called the Calibre Cuti with a dual core Atom 330 CPU and first generation NVIDIA ION graphics. But Sparkle plans to introduce a new version of the nettop with next-generation ION in time for the Computex trade show in June.

The computers support up to 4GB of RAM and can handle hard drives up to 500GB. They have 802.11b/g/n WiFi built in, HDMI and DVI video outputs, 7.1 channel audio, 6 USB ports, and optional Bluetooth.

It looks like Lenovo may be planning to add a WiMAX option to the IdeaPad U150  inch thin and light notebook. Wireless Goodness spotted an FCC filing for the U150 with an internal wielress card that would support WiMAX mobile broadband as well as 802.11b/g/n WiFi.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U150 features an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display and an Intel CULV processor. It runs Windows 7 Home Premium, and falls into the category of budget thin and light notebooks that are larger and more powerful than netbooks but a little less capable than full sized laptops. I reviewed the U150 last month, but the model I tested didn’t support WiMAX.

No word on pricing or a release date for the WiMAX version.

Asus has pretty much stopped offering its netbooks and nettops with Linux preloaded. Instead, most of the company’s products come with Windows XP or Windows 7. But retailer Newegg is selling a first generation Asus Eee Box EB2020 nettop with Red Flag Linux, a Chinese Linux distribution that’s designed to look an awful lot like Windows XP.

The Eee Box with Red Flag Linux comes with 1GB of RAM, a 160Gb hard drive, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Ethernet, a mouse and keyboard, and a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor.

Newegg is selling the nettop for $219.99, but after a $30 mail-in rebate the price drops to $189.99 plus free shipping.

I wanted to take a moment to let you know about a new web site I’ve just launched, called mobiputing. As you can probably guess from the name, mobiputing is and will continue to be a sister site to Liliputing. But while Liliputing is focused on netbooks and mobile computing hardware and software generally, my aim with mobiputing is to cover the world of smartphone apps.

Right now there’s a pretty heavy focus on iPhone and Android applications on the site, because that’s where most of the development has been recently (and because I happen to have a Google Nexus One Android phone and an iPod Touch to test out new apps). But I’m hoping to touch on most of the major platforms, and I’ve already started lining up writers to help out with app reviews and recommendations for other platforms including WebOS.

While the netbook market was just getting started when I launched Liliputing, smartphones have clearly been around for a little while. But it’s an exciting time in the smartphone space, with Android phones like the Nexus One giving the iPhone some serious competition in terms of specs and available applications. And Microsoft is set to launch the most significant revision to its mobile operating system in a decade later this year.

Of course, I’ll also continue covering software development that’s relevant to the mobile computing space at Liliputing. So you can still expect to see the occasional post about Ubuntu, MeeGo, Jolicloud, Android, and Chrome OS. But if you’re at all interested in news about smartphone apps and operating systems, I hope you’ll check out mobiputing.