It will probably take a few years to these to become mainstream & with the cost of competition in the computer component manufacturing industry, it is hard to tell if anyone is going to make any big money on these.

Manufacturers:
The top 3 are Toshiba, HP, and Acer. There are not many significant small players.

Markets:
The USA has about 1/3 of the market, followed by Europe. Surprisingly, Asia didn’t have a bigger role.

Business users buy the most. Figure out where the contracts are and who is making them. Business buyers are also not as price sensitive as individuals (in my opinion). Pharmaceutical companies are a good start – the salesreps love Tablet PCs.

Commentary:
Intel makes the processor for almost all Tablet PCs. The processor is a very high margin component with high barriers to entry. The other distinct parts, like the LCD, are low margin, oversupplied, and hypercompetitive. I believe this is a very high risk investment, because it might take 5 years for the cycle to catch up. By that time, alternative technology could already be in place (Sony PSP, advanced cell phones, etc).

Laptop demand as a whole is strong and growing, but valuations might not warrant investment. Potential plays could be Intel, Toshiba, Acer, HP, and Fujitsu among others.

Caveat emptor.

Manufacturers usually always mark their parts in some fashion. Worst case you could try to find the FCC code and look that up online to try to match the part with the vendor. Of course none of this is guaranteed though but I’m sure you could find at least a couple of key component manufacturers this way.

For those that are too scared you could always luck out and find someone who works for say HP that disassembles these things all the time. I’m sure they could tell you but would probably get fired if anyone found out. I’m sure they don’t publish their component manufacturers for a reason, probably this exact one.