So, if Apple is trying to use the iPad to appeal to THAT part of the market as well, I’d argue thatn 16GB on the base unit’s too small.

As I’ve said in another post, this tablet was priced far lower than the $1000 I’d feared they’d go… but for the price, would another 16GB have been a huge deal breaker? If they can afford to put that in the regular 32GB 3G Touch, then why go low-ball for the iPad? It’s not like they don’t have the room to put in the extra 16GB flash memory in that case, or at least it doesn’t look like they’ve got that particular issue.

Unless, of course, they’re afraid of cannibalizing their iPod Touch sales – which seems unlikely, due to the physical size of the unit and the price involved. It’s closer to the Archos 5 Internet Tablet or maybe the Nokia Internet tablets in functionality as well as cost – the Vaio UX and similar ‘tablet’ computers ran full versions of a desktop/laptop OS after all, which meant they could run the software of their desktop equivalents.

And with that in mind, its price is comparable to most of those, or even that Camangi Webstation. Its closest competition at the moment seems to be less the ebook readers, and more the MID devices that Intel has failed to really popularize the past few years; it’s not a netbook, much less a notebook, but is likely to be a more popular alternative for couch-based web browsing and light reading, especially with Apple’s marketing department behind it.

With regard to the price, I just disagree. For one thing, the iPhone is contract-locked and subsidized, so that’s not an apples-apples kind of compare. Comparing it to he iPod Touch is more reasonable and yeah, it’s $300 more expensive. If you don’t think the bigger screen, faster speed, and increased functionality available thereby is worth it, hey, I have no argument for you. *I* think it’s worth it, but I’m a nerd.

Finally, when it comes to software flaws, I tend to be more patient. They update these crazy things all the time, and every time the software becomes more fully-featured. So maybe it doesn’t support flash now; I bet it will in 6 months. Or whenever.

So there ya have it.

My main concern with the iPad is what it’s likely to get wrong for this generation (battery life, the storage capacity being half of a 32GB iPod despite the latter being $200 less, possible lockdown of software available on it a la the iPhone/iPod Touch difference with some programs which don’t require iPhone features like GPS or cellular service), which are good reasons to wait for a 2G iPad. I’m not sure I’d want to use this as my primary book reader, but it could sure take away users who are currently using their iPod Touch 2G’s and the like for web browsing away from the laptop. Oh, and the browser being the MobileSafari version (so no Flash support) versus a more full-featured Safari 4-style one.

On the one hand, it wants to be a portable tablet computer, but on the other hand it limits the experience to a great degree by not allowing Flash or a more capable web browser, and the iPhone OS usage here limits what software it can run to just what Apple approves… which means we may not see a lot of more-capable programs for it to replace a presenter’s laptop when it comes to presentations.

I also think that the–what do they call ‘em? Millenials?–would find this device ideal for college, if Apple follows through on getting textbooks on it. When I was in school, Macs simply cost too much for the average student. But $500-$800, plus getting the books at a discount? Huge market.