LAS VEGAS – It’s raining tablets.

Hoping to nip away at Apple Inc.’s iPad and the $20 billion market it now controls, dozens of manufacturers are unveiling more than 80 touch-screen computers at the Consumer Electronics Show, the annual tech showcase here.

The rush is on not only because of the hugely successful iPad, but also because manufacturers are betting that the tablet computer will become a ubiquitous household gadget.

“Today we think of tablets as mobile devices, but as prices come down, we might see them around the home used for all kinds of uses,” said Ross Rubin, an analyst for technology research firm NPD Group. “There might be one that’s more for watching, or a more durable one that the kids play with for education.”

Or even as digital picture frames, weather dashboards or recipe books, Rubin added.

CES is the world’s largest gathering for the tech industry with more than 100,000 in attendance.

A year ago at CES, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer showed off versions of Microsoft’s so-called Slate tablet. But the Slate never came out, and Apple’s iPad became the first tablet to capture wide attention when it was announced a few weeks later. Now Microsoft lags in an exploding industry.

Newspaper owner Tribune Co. has planned a news-reading application for tablets that run Windows. The application, called Mosaic, creates a moving set of touchable photographs that, when tapped, reveal a headline associated with the photo that users can open and read.

Other stars of the show included major electronics manufacturers such as LG, Samsung and Dell, as well as a number of lesser-known companies with niche approaches to the tablet. Nearly all of the new tablet devices being announced this week will be powered by Microsoft or Google Inc. software.

Austin, Texas-based Motion Inc. showed off a $1,000 “ruggedized” device aimed at physically demanding industries such as construction, health care and in-store retail, and built to withstand both the elements and rough handling.

“Below freezing or above 100 degrees? No problem,” a Motion brochure says. “Dropped from 4 feet? Like it never happened.”

To differentiate itself from many other tablets that work with Android or Windows, Chinese manufacturer Lenovo released a device that works with both. The $520 LePad runs Android software until it is attached to a laptop-like docking station, which converts the tablet to a screen for the Windows operating system.

That feature may appeal to a relatively minor audience. But as Rubin, the analyst, said, it’s still just the beginning for tablets — and this is an industry that likes to throw a lot of spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks.