It depends what you're looking for. There's huge diversity among "tablets." There are devices like the iPad and Galaxy Tab, which aren't really tablet PC's, there are slates like the HP Slate 500, which are relatively young and don't pack a lot of power but have a load of potential (Asus and others will be venturing down this line in 2011), and then there are real tablet PC's which are convertible notebooks like the HP TM2/Elitebook, Fujitsu Notebooks, and Lenovo X201T. All of these devices appeal to different people.

I personally just scored an HP Touchsmart2. It's not the best convertible tablet out there in terms of build quality (especially the LCD quality), but it has a great feature set. It has switchable graphics with the Radeon 5450 and Intel GMA graphics, which makes it capable of some light gaming (I even have Black Ops running somewhat acceptably on it) and includes a Wacom penabled digitizer and a multitouch capacitive digitizer. Combined with a Core i5, four gigs o ram and a 500GB hard drive, it's something I can do light graphic design/illustration work on too.

January is never a great time to buy anything unless you're looking for deals. CES starts soon and there will be a ton of new products launching this Spring. I'm thrilled with my purchase, but it's definitely a niche/specific needs sort of tool. If you don't need all of these functions you can get a more powerful notebook in the same price range. I opted for the TM2 because it's literally the only machine on the market that fits all of my needs, although it does not excel in any specific area.

I do adore it though :)

Basically:

Tablets (iPad/Android): Great devices (especially the iPad) for consuming media and playing casual games.
Slates PC's: Young and unproven market with a lot of potential but practically no momentum.
Tablet PC's: Proven niche market combining power and utility you won't find in the previous categories.