The iPad itself IS just a big iPhone, meaning it is a crippled, closed piece of hardware that doesn’t do everything it should be capable of.  It still holds a bit of intrigue, though that may just be the early adopter in me.  I’m not a fan of Apple or its products but once again they’ve come up with a device that I am seriously considering buying.  It has definite value as just a small slate that you can just keep on standby around the house and use it for quick internet searches or the more popular use, browsing the web or listening to music while on the toilet.  The 3G connection at a paltry $15 a month with AT&T is much cheaper than the standard contracts you get with most netbooks.  At that price, with the ability to get online anywhere I want to the device has a purpose.  The only problem is that you assume that AT&T’s saturated network will be able to handle the extra traffic iPads could generate.  In the end, I just might buy my first Apple product.  I’ll wait of course for Apple to drop the price after the fanboys buy it at full price and the casual user doesn’t buy an iPad. 

For anyone who is thinking of buying an iPad, here are some points to consider.

Pros

• Built in 3G and wifi connectivity on the higher end model means you have an Internet device that works anywhere AT&T works.
• Mature App market.
• Book reader (though reading books on a backlit LCD always strains your eyes after a while).
• iPod built in

Cons

• Closed nature of Apple products means standards that will be available on Android/Windows tablets later will never be supported by Apple (see flash).
• No SD slot means you can’t expand the memory as higher capacity SD cards become available
• No removable battery.  I know people argue that removable batteries aren’t important, but I have always needed to swap batteries when I’m somewhere I can’t plug in, like at a family reunion, a long flight or a long drive, or when I’m travelling and won’t be anywhere long enough to wait for the battery to charge.

Also important to keep in the back of your mind the penalty of early adopting an Apple consumer device.  If you are technically savvy and don’t mind using devices that do the same things as the Apple version you might want to wait.  Just as the iPhone was followed up by Android phones that do more, there are some impressive looking Android devices on the horizon as well as the Courier tablet that Microsoft has been showing off but not announcing an official plan to sell.  In the end, I am an early adopter.  The only thing that kept me away from an iPhone was the fact that I love T-mobile’s support and customer service and didn’t want to switch to AT&T or buy an expensive phone with no warranty (jailbroken).  I’ll probably buy the iPad and then buy the Courier or an Android tablet later.  But then, as long as the iTunes App store continues to be so much more mature than the Android and Windows Live Markets, there would have to be something really compelling to make me switch back.