Rivals hoping to challenge Apple Inc.’s hold on the computer tablet market unveiled a slew of touch-screen devices at the Consumer Electronics Show, but analysts expect the company to continue dominating the sector, Reuters reported.

Though a viable competitor may surface this year, Apple, which has cut the price of the iPad to $500, continues to be the preferred choice among tablet purchases.

“Android will be a key player in the tablet market, but it will be hard for any single vendor to challenge Apple,” said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst with Gartner Inc., referring to Google Inc.’s operating system.

Motorola Inc. and Research in Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry smart phone, were standouts at the Consumer Electronics Show now being held in Las Vegas, but no products are rising to iPad-killer status, analysts said.

“I think a lot of people are hoping that this market is not going to be like Apple and the MP3 market,” said Rich Beyer, chief executive of Freescale Semiconductor, which makes chips for computers.

Beyer told Reuters that Apple’s competitors, some of which used the show to sketch out underdeveloped ideas, are still testing the market. Some tablets, such as those with different screen sizes and those designed for the corporate market – an area where Apple traditionally has not been very successful – are expected to present the largest challenge to Apple’s position.

“Apple can’t expect to have the tablet market to itself,” said Paul-Henri Ferrand, head of consumer marketing with Dell Inc.