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The success of Apple Inc. (AAPL)�s iPad isn�t just drawing more competition to the tablet market. It�s attracting thousands of counterfeit and knockoff products. On a single day in July, almost 18,000 fakes and clones resembling the iPad and Android devices were available for sale on 23 e-commerce sites, according to MarkMonitor Inc., a San Francisco-based firm that helps companies protect their brands. The tablets can be illegal -- for instance, if they have a bogus Apple logo -- and often they don�t work well and have no warranty protection, said Fred Felman, chief marketing officer of MarkMonitor. The copycat products and suspected counterfeits found in MarkMonitor�s survey were offered by more than 5,000 sellers, many of them located in China. Knockoff iPads may proliferate during the year-end holiday season, as shoppers beset by the economic slump go hunting for bargains. That�s creating more competition for Apple, even if many consumers only buy the tablets because they believe they�re getting the real thing. Apple�s advantage is its software is hard to replicate, said Francis Sideco, an analyst at research firm IHS Inc. �You can only copy to a certain degree,� he said. For instance, knockoff tablets may not connect to Apple�s iTunes and App Store. �It�s not necessarily about hardware but the software, and it�s very difficult to copy that,� Sideco said. Trudy Muller, an Apple spokeswoman, declined to comment. No. 2 Product Apple released the iPad in April 2010, and it quickly emerged as the company�s No. 2 product category behind the iPhone. The tablet generated $6.9 billion for Cupertino, California-based Apple last quarter, out of a total of $28.3 billion.