The tablet market is heating up, and orders are skyrocketing as mega-manufacturers work to fulfill need for Rim Playbooks and Motorola Xoom Tablet devices in the 1^st quarter alone. Digiweek is reporting that Taiwan-based Quanta Computer, the largest manufacturer of notebook computers in the world, is beginning production of 1 million Rim PlayBook tablets for first quarter of 2011.  A separate Digiweek report last week describes 800,000 to a million Motorola Xoom tablets shipping for the same quarter.

Of course, this brings about the inevitable comparison to Apple, whose iPad product reportedly sold 4.2 million units in the last quarter.  Apple will soon push the pace with the anticipated iPad 2, which has many rumored features and is certainly facing some very viable contenders.  All indications show that it’s their game to lose.

While this classic dogfight will play out through 2011 and beyond, one has to wonder if RIM’s enterprise-centric device will give it a market or profit edge to market share significance, or if someone, perhaps Motorola with their Xoom product can deliver on not only the “wow” factor, but also in the consumer marketing edge that Apple performs so well.

While it stands to reason that Apple and its iPad line will continue to dominate the tablet market, it appears a significant share will be going to some pretty significant competitors.