MANILA, Philippines -- So, why is Apple today’s king of the heap?

How did the Cupertino company become so big and so rich that now it has more cash than the U.S. Treasury?

Well, most of its admirers and fans would immediately say it is because Apple’s products and services work. Echoing Steve Jobs’ favorite line about his company’s products, the Apple faithful would readily say their favorite gadgets and toys simply work. Apple’s products do what they are designed to do.

And they do so with flourish that does not take anything from what the users feel as comfort from the gadgets’ constant reliability. Never before have been boring and exciting so intricately and intimately combined.

Forget about the so-called Apple mystique (which is partly due to marketing prowess and partly due to product quality and design), forget about Jobs’ turtleneck, and lose the thought of media organizations’ alleged deep-seated infatuation with the Mac-branded world.

Apple changes the game, and redefines markets or creates new ones, by releasing products that are fully finished and complete, products that come with features and functions that Apple’s marketing brochures say they have.

Now, take a look at some of the tablet computers recently released by Apple’s rivals. They might appear interesting. They might hint of some future excitements. They might have something that could potentially rival the iPad’s best qualities.

But their makers released them before these tablet computers were fully prepared to do battle with the tablet market’s current king. No wonder the iPad still rules.

Windows 7-cum-Android Tablet

Recognizing perhaps that there are millions of consumers who for one reason or another can never let go of the Windows operating system, Viewsonic designed the ViewPad 10 tablet computer as a dual-boot device that swears allegiance to both Microsoft’s Windows 7 platform and Google’s Android OS.

The 10.1-inch-screen-toting tablet weighs less than 2lbs and comes fully loaded with the usual features, such as WiFi and Bluetooth. It comes powered by a 1.66Ghz processor from Intel and includes a 1.3-megapixel camera. Its connectivity features include a mini VGA port, a standard audio jack, two USB ports, and a MicroSD card slot. Will the ViewPad 10 turn out to be a well-balanced Windows-Android combo gadget or a bipolar disorder-afflicted mess of a contraption? We’ll find out soon enough.

Lenovo’s Windows 7 Tablet

Lenovo recently unveiled a couple of Android Honeycomb-flavored tablet computers. Nothing too exciting about that.

China’s most popular IT vendor, however, did something presently unusual. It launched a Windows 7-powered tablet. Equipped with an Intel 1.5GHz processor for its brain and a 32GB or 64GB solid-state drive, the P1 tablet computer will be out in the market by the fourth quarter. Lenovo says the device weighs 1.75lbs and comes with USB 2.0 port, a MicroSD card reader, and a mobile data card slot. Microsoft is yet to launch the tablet-friendly Windows 8 operating system. But consumers are already seeing an increasing number of Windows-friendly tablet computers.

Isn’t that exciting, Windows loyalists?

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.