No, Dinny. Oh, wait...
It's really instructive to see how opinion splits on this thing between the tech pros, who generally don't like it, and the finance pros, who are already counting all the extra money they think Apple is going to make. I guess this is because the former are focusing pretty much solely on the use case -- where Apple has clearly not, as they had hoped, delivered the innovations required to establish tablet devices as fully-fledged, general-purpose computers. The money men, though, are looking at the business case -- and they see an extremely aggressive attempt to create a whole new category of mass-market consumer data device. Instead of taking the usual approach to the technology adoption lifecycle, Apple is trying to "cross the chasm" (between tech-savvy early adopters and the majority of consumers) straight out of the gate, betting that the iPad's price point is more important than its feature list and that the existing installed base of iPhone/Touch OS users (plus the intuitive simplicity of that operating system) will let them bypass the usability issues that are generally the major drag on the diffusion of innovation.
So, while the iPad isn't the Jesus tablet the geeks were dreaming of, it's huge for Apple nevertheless. It's their entry in the sub-$500 sort-of-computer race that they'd previously ceded to the netbooks. It's their shot (and a pretty good one) at being the single biggest player in the diffuse media market of the future. It's their testbed for innovations in mobile technology that can be pushed down to the smartphone lineup (the processors) and up to the laptops (gesture UI etc.). It's another potential profit channel for indy developers, allowing them to extend their already huge lead in mobile software. I don't think it was all hype when Jobs said the iPad could be the most significant product he has been involved with at the company.
Eh, what do I know? I'll buy one straight away because it suits me. Your mileage will vary.
