Chinese iPad by Alibaba ready to rock and roll

Before you usher in the new year, Jack Ma, 'The Steve Jobs of China', has just confirmed that his company, Alibaba, will be rolling out a Chinese version of the iPad. It is not an iPad per se, but will instead rival one of Apple's hottest selling devices, while running on a Linux-based operating system.

For those living in China, they will most probably be very familiar with the names Tianyu and Aliyun, especially after having a go at the Tianyu-manufactured K-Touch Cloud-Smart Phone W700, which is also the first Aliyun-running device that was introduced earlier this year. While the phone itself costs $416, there was no mention on how much the upcoming tablet will cost.

It would also make sense should Alibaba's upcoming tablet will feature strong links to their very own online commerce, retail and payment platforms and cloud computing services. Unofficially known as the YanPad, it remains to be seen whether this will end up faring better than the iPad in that part of the world – what do you think?