What's the point of an iPad?

So the Apple tablet PC has been launched and it's imaginatively called the iPad, it must really have taken the marketing team a long time to think that one up. First they had to look at their iPod then they took out an 'o' and swapped it with an 'a', it really is genius! So clever in fact that the number 1 twitter topic today is #itampon, which is being constantly linked with
a 3 year old youtube video.

Since my first experience with a tablet PC I have wondered what they were for, in the past (before smart phones) they seemed to have a use as a more portable solution to a laptop and with more functions than a mobile phone. Now however with the capability and features of a smart phone and the lightness of laptops I don't see the need, Steve Jobs says that they are a better solution than a netbook but I don't see the point in them either. I have a mobile phone that performs many of the same functions, in fact my phone has just as much memory as some of the netbooks, can open and edit a varitety of microsoft office documents and when I've finished it just slips back in my pocket.





The main advantage I can see in a netbook is the keyboard, which allows you to type emails quickly and edit documents with ease. But then I realised, my mobile has a full qwerty keyboard and so do the many models of RIM's Blackberry. This brings me back to the iPad, it doesn't have a qwerty keyboard, yes it may have one on screen but what about when your trying to use it on your lap on a busy train. Even since touch screen phones came out the majority of the population still chooses a phone with a keypad or a combination of screen and keypad. I imagine in the PC market this same necessity is even greater.

In my experience with commuting people do one of 3 things;
1. They get on the train, pick up a discarded paper, read it and leave it on the train when they get off.
2. Talk, text or play games on their mobile phone.
3. Get out their netbook/laptop and fiddle about in excel, word, powerpoint or with emails.

The issue I have with the iPad is weather you will really be able to edit spreadsheets and type emails with both hands or will it end up being a 'hold it in one hand and type with the other' scenario where you end up getting very little done.

There are benefits from having a newspaper made from paper, for instance once you've read it you can throw it away, with the iPad you're still carrying it around. It's too big to use as a mobile phone and if you're carrying a laptop into work anyway then why bother editing documents on an iPad when you're only going to have to transfer them back to your laptop when you get to work. What's left is the ebook reader function, which you can get from Amazon's Kindle for half the price!

I just don't see the point of it, it doesn't really replace anything it's just something else to carry around. If you can give me a real life scenario where it is a usable and beneficial product and not just a hyped up new gadget then I would love to hear it. Until then I'll stick with my laptop, phone and newspaper.