There is an over-abundance of tablet options this holiday season; with Apple's market-leading iPad, and its latest iPad Mini version, set to witness fierce competition from some of the other attractive tablets, including Amazon's Kindle Fire and Fire HD; Barnes & Noble's Nook HD and HD+; Google's Samsung-manufactured Nexus 10 and Asus-manufactured Nexus 7; and Microsoft's Surface tablet, among others.

In fact, with tablet options galore this time round for the holiday shopping season, potential customers will apparently feel somewhat panicky to select the best tablet out of the various devices available online as well as consumer electronics stores.

The choice of a particular tablet is going top be all the more difficult given the fact that it will be for the first time since the introduction of the iPad that Apple will face competition from rivals who are offering tablets in different sizes, features, price-points and apps.

With the word `tablet' no longer being synonymous with `iPad,' Sarah Rotman Epps - Forrester analyst of consumer computing trends - is of the opinion that while the increased choice in the tablet arena is good for the consumers, it will also make shopping "confusing and complicated."

Pointing out that "what's different about this holiday season is that consumers have not just more choice, but really good choices," Epps said: "There have been many iPad wannabes but no real quality alternatives, and now there are several."