I love the iPad and certainly want one, but agree it is not for everyone. But that’s the point, it appeals to those who need one and for others an iPhone, laptop or Netbook may do.

The sleeper innovation here is Apple’s iBookstore. While iPad apps may be great for newspapers, the textbook publishing industry has been way behind in introducing digital content… not unlike the music industry 10 years ago.

iBooks offers textbook publishers a means to deploy digital content without worrying about copyright infringement. And digital content would be much cheaper for students as they don’t have to carry the large fixed printing costs that amortized over the small textbook production runs. There are also many advantages to digital textbook content, such as search, updates, links to other articles and videos, not to mention shelf space.

As a part-time MBA student in the final year of my studies, I would have bought a tablet three years ago when I began. With about $400/term in textbooks it would have payed for itself in no time. Even without a tablet, the iBookstore will probably be available on the Mac as well, or even on Windows, so the content probably won’t be restricted to iPads.

Look for this to be the next killer app.

I to like to buy the new and latest in technology. I like my phone to have all the bells and whistles. Not only does it entertain me but the kids to. I think that Liddo is right the only people that could benefit from this iPad would some one who could utilize all of the apps. Myself would have no use for it and my little Voyager works fine for me. I would like to have the opportunity to play with the iPad a bit though. AT&T like to brag about the coverage they have but they have seem to forgot about Montana. Until that happens Verizon will continue to be my provider and I am pretty confident that they will come out with their own version of the iPad. Great ideas are quick to be copied.

The iPad is great except for the fact that Apple has ignored almost all the consumer’s wish lists in a tablet.  1)No Camera, so far at least.  2)  No additional SD/MMC slots etc..  3) Not OSx 4)Unable to multitask. Except for calls and surfing or such. 5)  The Name isn’t exactly awe inspiring. Not to mention copyrighted by several others already.  MacTablet, MacTouch, iTouch Tablet, iNotePad, or whatever was already copyrighted and didn’t bring the thought of female feminine products. 

With all that said I’d be happy to still own one!

Apple has always been at the lead of the sea change:

- The iPod began the era of digital music
- The iPhone began the era of the smartphone
- The iPad will begin the era of the tablet device

They shifted focus from computers to mobile devices,and now they are one of the biggest producers of mobile devices on earth.  The iPad will make then the biggest.

What’s so cool about the iPad? I could have written this article in one word…

NOTHING

It’s just a big iPod, they are not reinventing anything this time, jobs is delirious from all the pain meds he’s on. This is just another consumption machine. Plus, you can’t even fit it in your pocket. If you want to read books, get a kindle, no one is going to want to read on this for extended periods of time. That’s why they made E ink. Plus, why would you want something that is so locked down. Until it get’s jail broken of course, but having an additional data fee for your iPad seems very silly. It should run on the service my iphone already has. It’s like when you try to buy a netbook at verizon, they make you sign up for a contract if you don’t want to get scammed for the price. But then you end up paying over 900 for a netbook that should have cost les than 300 to begin with. By the way, did you know you can get an iphone on verizon? You just have to ask the right person.

JB:

- The iPod began the era of digital music
Untrue. That was Napster.
- The iPhone began the era of the smartphone
Untrue. That was Nokia.
- The iPad will begin the era of the tablet device
Untrue. That was Asus.

Apple makes great instantiations of the products, and in some cases the best if, but let’s give credit to the actual sources.

It’s Apple’s engineering philosophy as related to battery replacement thats a deal breaker for me.

“...you’ll be eligible to take advantage of the company’s battery replacement service.  But what does that entail ?”

“First, you’ll have to shell out $99 (plus $6.95 for shipping and whatever your local tax happens to be) for the opportunity for a brand-new device. And I phrase that as I do for a very specific reason…”

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2361358,00.asp