Why? It't then a netbook with a flat screen layout... very unusable to my way of thinking. Hard to see, hard to use. The user would have to find a flat surface to lay it on and then hunch over it to see and type on it. Uh uh. Not for me.
Without the keyboard, the iPad or any other slate will mainly be a cool toy, for viewing content.
You obviously are speaking as someone who simply has not used an iPad... I have been using one for six months. I do not find what you claim is a negative to be one.
And if someone really wants that, they make folio cases for iPads that integrate a keyboard.
To each his own, I guess. I think a thin device with a touch screen and a full keyboard would be ideal. To me the iPad (and pretty much all slates for that matter) fall into a no-man’s land of being no more portable than a notebook and less functional. I’d rather carry around either a netbook, or an iPhone or other smartphone, or both, than an iPad.
I’m not sure what you mean about finding a flat surface. What I am talking about is would be pretty much in the shape of a netbook (when the keyboard is pulled out), but thinner and with a touchscreen, instead of a standard computer screen. Or picture an iPad, with a keyboard that would lay flat on your lap or table top, while the screen is standing up at an angle slightly greater than 90 degrees. I’d imagine it would have on onscreen virtual keyboard as well, for use when the keyboard is not pulled out.