The iPad hasn’t landed in Japan yet, giving domestic competitors some room for their own announcements for tablet PCs. Sharp, for example, today unveiled [JP] the NetWalker PC-T1, which looks like a tablet variant of the PC-Z1 the company introduced last year. Both models look pretty similar, it’s just that the older device lost the keyboard to become the T1.

Featuring a screen size of just 5 inches, the PC-T1 is still really tiny, but the TFT boasts 1,024×600 resolution and is LED back-lit. Other specs include:

• OS: Ubuntu 9.04
• 800MHz Freescale i.MX515 CPU
• 512 of memory (fixed)
• 1.5GB of storage space
• Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b/g
• USB port, microUSB port
• SD/SDHC card slot
• Bluetooth 2.1＋EDR
• pre-installed software: FireFox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org etc.
• weight: 280g (120g less than the PC-Z1)
• battery life: 6 hours (4 hours less than the PC-Z1)

Sharp plans to start selling the PC-T1 in Japan in late May in two colors (silver and black). It will cost a whopping $510 in this country, but if you live outside Japan, you can pre-order the device now for $654 at Geek Stuff 4U (they’ll ship it anywhere).