[ThunderSleeps]

Remind me again just what is an iPad good for? Seems to me to be a product looking for a market, looking for a reason to exist. Some of the specs/features (or lack thereof) I've read for it make it seem extremely limited. Seems like an overgrown iPod touch. My son calls his iPod touch "an iPad-nano" only half-jokingly.

Why kill or compete with a product that seems to be going nowhere, capable of not much? Don't make an iPad clone, make something useful.

[PreciousLiberty]

“Remind me again just what is an iPad good for?”

Sure - making Apple a LOT of money.

For the consumer, providing a handheld platform for information consumption - books, movies, and games.

There’s never been anything like it before, no doubt there will be imitators but they will likely fall where the imitators of the iPod and iPhone have landed - short.

[Richard Kimball]

Why kill or compete with a product that seems to be going nowhere, capable of not much? Don't make an iPad clone, make something useful.

Primarily because it's an extremely profitable product that's selling as fast as Apple can manufacture it. HP, Google, and Sony already have their copiers cranked up.

MS may end up being the odd man out here. They've had little luck in scaling their products into a small light footprint. HP killed the Slate, but will probably bring it back with the Palm OS. This could be interesting. If Palm had leveraged their Pilot into a phone they could have had the iPhone quite a few years before the iPhone. HP has the ability to make it work.

I do not believe these tablets will be a fad. The head of Nintendo recently told his company engineers that the competition is not Sony. He believes they've won the battle with the Playstation. He believes the next battle for the gaming platform will be with Apple.

[BunnySlippers]

I wasn’t sure I wanted or needed one. Then I found myself in line on opening day to buy the 3G model.

Everyday I have it, I like it more. I no longer have to pack up my laptop when I go out. It is very similar [for me] to my Day Runner from decades ago. Total organization at my fingertips.

But it’s more. I watched a TV program on my iPad during my long wait in the doctor’s office yesterday afternoon. I got a great free book on MacWorld website and put in iBooks and started reading it today. I went down to the coffee place this morning and sat and arranged the photographs that I am putting onto my new website. I read the WSJ on my iPad over breakfast without having unwieldy papers to fold and newsprint on my fingers. After a great lunch at my favorite Thai restaurant i polished off a couple more levels of Gears, my favorite game.

I could go on ... but I love it. =)

[BunnySlippers]

I wasn’t sure I wanted or needed one. Then I found myself in line on opening day to buy the 3G model.

Everyday I have it, I like it more. I no longer have to pack up my laptop when I go out. It is very similar [for me] to my Day Runner from decades ago. Total organization at my fingertips.

But it’s more. I watched a TV program on my iPad during my long wait in the doctor’s office yesterday afternoon. I got a great free book on MacWorld website and put in iBooks and started reading it today. I went down to the coffee place this morning and sat and arranged the photographs that I am putting onto my new website. I read the WSJ on my iPad over breakfast without having unwieldy papers to fold and newsprint on my fingers. After a great lunch at my favorite Thai restaurant i polished off a couple more levels of Gears, my favorite game.

I could go on ... but I love it. =)

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Seems like an overgrown iPod touch."

You say that as if it's a bad thing.

A friend is on a 40-country, seven-week trip right now with his wife and a combined total of 38 pounds of gear, including a base-model iPad and a digital camera. Ten days into his trip, he has already amassed more than 2,000 pictures. He and his wife are keeping in touch via email, web and Skype. His entire itinerary, many dozens of pages including ferry and train and bus schedules, is stored on his iPad in .pdf form. Meanwhile he has ebooks and movies and music to give them a touch of home.

If the history of computing teaches us one thing, it's that sometimes the hardware has to come first, and the applications will follow. My friend is finding the iPad's unprecedented battery life, ease of use and broad functionality--and yes, it's bigger-than-iPod-touch screen and keyboard--gives him a critical mass of capability that is enabling all sorts of enjoyment as they journey along.

He's 67, by the way.

Bottom line: don't knock it until you've tried it.

[Swordmaker]

Why kill or compete with a product that seems to be going nowhere, capable of not much? Don't make an iPad clone, make something useful.

It seems you are not paying attention if you think the iPad is not going anywhere or is not capable of much.

This reply was posted from my iPad.

[ctdonath2]

I have an iPad. It's awesome. Yes, it is an overgrown iPod Touch - which was the device that nearly ended my need for a "real" computer outside of work (software engineer, quad-core dual-LCD monster on the desk), because it put 90% of my computer usage in my pocket with an interface that worked. Sure the specs seem sub-par compared to other products ... but re-read the lead article, which notes that other companies came out with "better" devices which went nowhere. It's not what you've got, it's what you do with it - and the iPad does it right.

"Going nowhere"? Apple has moved a billion dollars worth of new product in 6 weeks flat - product which other major manufactures have gone nowhere with not just for weeks, but for decades.

Stop listening to the naysayers who advocate product paradigms which have proven abject failures. The iPad, for all its real & imagined faults, is succeeding on a huge scale - and it's only been on the market for six weeks.