I honestly don't understand the point of this thing. I am sure the Apple faithful will eat it up (on a side note, I am not an Apple hater. I own an iPod Touch and iPod Nano), but what use could it have for the average consumer. Some of the things I have heard that is intended for

Gaming
The iPod Touch/iPhone doesn't work well for most games, especially more traditional styled games. The lack of a physical input device is a killer. I don't like obstructing my view of the screen to press buttons, and the lack of a physical raised button makes it hard to find them at all. I am not supposed to have to locate the button everytime I want to use it. Even Nintendo included traditional physical inputs on the DS and that was built all around the touch screen. The other thing is the size, you are basically holding something as big as a piece of paper in your hand. People were having problems with the original XBox controller because it was so huge (before the S redesign) so I can't imagine the iPad is any more comfortable to hold.

Music
They already have the iPod Touch/iPhone and this thing is just to big to carry around to be a primary music player.

Internet Browsing
Again the much more portable iPod Touch/iPhone can already browse the web. Also for less than the minimum $499 price tag (that is without your 3G access) you can get a netbook that can run more software, such as office apps, or use USB peripherals, such as a DVD drive.

Video Player
This is about the only one I can see making a little sense. It has a nice large screen, although it isn't a true widescreen ratio. It also has the iTunes store built in so you can buy the video (as well as the free software that lets you rip your own DVDs which will more than likely be updated to work with the iPad resolution). However, $499 minimum for a portable DVD player is steep, and that isn't counting the money spent if you buy the video from iTunes.

All in all, I just don't understand who they are marketing this to. My only guess is that it is made to compete in the newly emerging netbook market, but with a price difference of around $100 (Best Buy's website lists 14 netbooks for less than $300) I can't see it working out. I know Apple markets its PC's and laptops at much higher prices than Windows based machines but the Apple computer line has some software that is viewed as being much better than its Windows counterparts (specifically design and multimedia editing software), the iPad has none of that.

Will it succeed? I don't know, but it is hard to doubt Apple right now. Their loyal fanbase will buy these and their hip reputation will probably make this the new cool thing to takes notes on in a college class. Even then, I still don't see a large enough market to make this a profitable venture for them.

The point of this thing is, whatever digital thing exists that people haven't yet fully come to embrace, Apple will come along with one unifying model under one simple unified marketing structure, and instantaneously destroy their competitors, not necessarily with quality, but with ubiquity.

The iPod is not the best mp3 player. The iPhone is not the best smartphone, or all-in-one portably digital placenta. iTunes is not the best music store or media player software. But they have the most consistent marketing, the most brand penetration, and therefore have the most support, and in the great too-advanced-a-concept-for-Ayn Rand-to-understand the vicious commercial circle completes its first revolution. The more it is perceived as the unified industry standard, the more appealing it seems to customers and developers. The more appealing it seems, the more it sells. The more it sells, the less competitors sell, the more the device is perceived as the unified industry standard. And round and around we go.

And then it proliferates and snowballs. The iPod guaranteed success for the iPhone, the iPhone for the iPad.

Put simply though, it's a device that if it were made by Sony, or Nokia, or LG nobody would give a shit. Because it's made by Apple, people think "wow, it must be something I need in my life." Thus it will artificially create a new and wholly unnecessary paradigm for an ever more technology-dependant consumer culture. Much like the digital readers that people are still pushing though, when you really think about it, all it's doing is reconstituting and repackaging existing technologies and concepts into a diluted and ersatz facsimile. On the surface it seems so new and exciting, but on reflection they're selling you a low-power netbook with a touch screen interface in an overpriced premium Apple shell, thus proving that by sticking an i in front of something, Apple will succeed in selling you something you already had, and didn't even need in the first place.

Can't wait til the I-microwave comes out!

They are actually selling real I-apple fruits.

Of course, the iPod Classic is actually a pretty good piece of hardware.

I adore my iPhone, useful for everything (:

I wouldn't buy an iPad though, I just don't see it working well enough to replace a netbook or something. I can see people buying it because they 'need' the next Apple product, but ahh well, that's how they make their money.

DAMN YOU! I was about to make that joke. (Actually, I was going to quote some fawmer dude who made that joke, but meh.) Does anyone else find the name "iPad" kind of creepy for that reason!? It does sound like some sort of collaboration between Apple and Always. Ugh.

The iPhone is the most misleading. How is it like a phone? ;)