In another sign that non-Apple tablets are being priced into a downard spiral, Sony has cut the price of its S series tablet by $100.

Earlier, reports came in that BlackBerry was offering its PlayBook tablets at hefty discount to consumers during the holiday season - apparently to clear unsold inventory lying in its distribution network.

According to an article on News.com, the 16GB Tablet S from Sony is now priced at $400, (which was earlier selling for $500), while the 32GB model got cut to $500 from $600.

Specs of the tablet include a 9.4-inch 1280x800 display, front and rear cameras, Android Honeycomb, 1GB system memory, and eight hours of rated battery life.

While there have been dozens of tablet launches in the world market in recent times, no other company has been half as successful as Apple with its iPad. So much so that some crtics and analysts have begun quipping: "There's no tablet market - but, yes, there's a growing iPad market out there!"

Perhaps the closest that a company has come to competing with Apple is Samsung, whose Galaxy tablet is doing better compared to other rivals. However, both companies are locked in various patent-related battles in several markets across the globe.

And then, there are some "Indian tablets" that promise the moon on a shoestring but either fail to take off or sell in such low numbers that nobody talks about them - except when the low prices are announced at launch.