The iPad

A lot of people seem disappointed with the iPad. It's very clearly not as powerful as a netbook. It doesn't even run OSX, it runs the same OS as the iPod Touch or iPhone. Considering that I tend to be critical of netbooks to begin with, and especially take issue with the MacBook Air, you're probably thinking I'm one of them.

Surprise. I love the iPad and am seriously thinking about getting one when they become commercially available. My main reservations have far more to do with Apple First-Gen hardware trends (both unexpected bugs and a quickly-lowered price point) than with any technical aspects of the iPad that I am currently aware of.

The thing that most people don't seem to be keeping in mind is that the iPad is meant to be something fundamentally different from a laptop or netbook.  A laptop is meant to be a portable computer.  A netbook is meant to be a cheap laptop that doesn't need to be quite as powerful.  The iPad, on the other hand, is not meant to be a portable computer.  It's meant to be the first of a new class of devices.  To borrow a term from fiction, let's call these "Personal Access Display Devices".  It's meant for viewing information and media (including internet, email, and chat), and some limited editing/creation/manipulation of said information and media.  It's meant as a peripheral device to a more advanced computer system, not as a replacement for the computer system itself.  As time progresses, it may even become a major input and output device for the main computer system.  It's potential is literally game-changing.

I just have one question for Steve Jobs, though.  Or, perhaps, a challenge:  when am I going to see an Apple Tricorder?