ZTE Corp launched a tablet computer during a telecommunications show yesterday in Beijing to join the "slate war" against Apple Inc's iPad, which debuted in the domestic market last month.

Many companies, including Samsung, ZTE and Hewlett-Packard, have kicked off sales of a series of new tablet computers to compete with the iPad, the world's most popular slate computer, industry officials said.

ZTE, China's biggest public telecommunications equipment maker, launched the new device Light yesterday during the P&T/Expo Comm China 2010. The 7-inch computer features WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access) network support and Android system with more than 100,000 applications from navigation, e-book reading to video playing.

"We are watching the convergence of tablet computer and Internet application. Light is the result," said He Shiyou, ZTE's vice president. "It's a device with special design and more portable compared with the iPad."

ZTE declined to reveal the price of the new device.

Apple launched the iPad on China's mainland last month with a 4,999 yuan (US$735) starting price for the 16GB model.

The US-based research firm iSuppli recently boosted its iPad sales estimates through the end of 2012. iSuppli pegs 2010 sales at 12.9 million units, up significantly from an initial "conservative" estimate of 7.1 million issued at the device's initial launch in April in the United States.

Since then, Dell, HP, Samsung and BlackBerry developer RIM have all launched slate computer products for the booming tablet market.

Chinese manufacturers have come up with similar products.