Several tablets are expected early next year from manufacturers like HTC, Motorola, and LG, but now we've got a surprising new entrant in the Great Tablet Race.  Remember the JooJoo, the tablet that was the center of a big legal battle and received less-than-stellar reviews?  Rather than pack it in, the company has decided to create a sequel to the JooJoo, this time based on Android.  The JooJoo 2 will take Android and rework it for what "the tablet market needs now," meaning that it may not be getting Google's seal of approval or access to the Android Market.  What it will feature, however, are optimizations like a unified interface that would feature several messaging services like Gmail and Facebook.  The JooJoo 2 is expected to land some time in early 2011.

I'm excited to see another tablet coming to market, because choice is always a good thing, but I'm a little nervous about the JooJoo 2's possibility of attaining success.  First of all, JooJoo certainly isn't the most recognizable manufacturer ever, especially compared to someone like Motorola.  Potential customers may be a little wary of buying an expensive device like a tablet from a company that they've never heard of before.  Then there's the chance that the JooJoo 2 may not have the Android Market installed, which would be another strike against it.  Sure, not having the ability to download apps isn't the end of the world, and there may end up being other ways to get your apps installed, but it definitely doesn't help the JooJoo 2's situation.  This is especially true when competitors like the iPad and Galaxy Tab will be able to install apps.  We'll just have to wait until next year, when it seems that just about every manufacturer and their mother will begin shipping an Android tablet, to see how things pan out.

Via BGR, Gizmodo