If you've been waiting for Apple to produce a tablet PC that's better than those you can find in the Windows world, your wait may be over - but thank Axiotron and Other World Computing, not Apple.

While Macworld Expo attendees' techstosterone levels were being juiced by Apple's announcement of the impressive iPhone, another impressive piece of new hardware was being demonstrated in megavendor Other World Computing's booth (#S2218): Axiotron's ModBook, a tabletization of Apple's MacBook.

The ModBook, distributed exclusively by Other World Computing, is at its core an Apple MacBook, but with its display and keyboard replaced by a display that uses Wacom's Penenabled hardware - it's sensitive only to a battery-free Wacom digitizer pen (a nice touch, so that even if you rest your hand on it, the display responds only to the tip of the pen). Using Mac OS X's Inkwell handwriting-recognition technology, and taking advantage of the pen-awareness of such applications as Corel's Painter, the ModBook is akin to the PC world's Tablet PC - but measurably better, due to the fact that it's running Mac OS X.

The ModBook's MacBook core also means that it's equipped with either a Combo Drive or SuperDrive - capabilities that are well-nigh impossible to find in the Tablet PC market. Add to that its handwriting recognition, iSight-enabled video iChat, DVD movie watching - even an optional GPS unit based on the SiRF III chipset - and you've got one sweet lil' maxi-tablet. Ah, the Mac community beats the Windows world's scrawny lil' hiney yet again.

The ModBook's keyboardlessness is no accident. Axiotron's head honcho, Andreas Haas, was formerly in Apple's Newton group - apparently he hasn't given up on the idea of a keyboard-free world. As Haas said, "If your favorite input device is the pen, this is the Mac for you."

The entry-level ModBook is based on a 1.83GHz Core Duo MacBook, and is priced at $2,279 (an introductory discount to $2,199 [big whoop] is available until January 31st). Other configurations include ModBooks with 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 160GB and 200GB hard drives, and more - prices were not available at the time this article was posted.

Not all new - and droolworthy - Apple-based hardware comes from Cupertino.