Well, the Apple is finally out of the bag today as the mythical "iPad" is unveiled.  But did the public receive the news as Steve intended?  Was the "shock" good, bad, or ugly? Perhaps it's too early to tell whether the iPad will be a success or failure because time is needed to see how things look when the dust settles.   But, it's not too early to discuss first impressions... so here's the 'skinny' on the iPad.

The Good:
-It's thin and light... only 1.5 pounds, 10 inch screen, and only .5 inches thick.
-LED back-lit Multi-touch screen & long battery life (10 hours estimated)
-Built-in Wifi, and 3G enabled (with a compatible sim card)
-Runs most ipod touch/iphone apps, built-in bluetooth
-Built-in Speakers, Microphone, headphone jack, mp3 and video functions
-The price is lower than expected, starting at $499
-External keyboard compatible


The Bad:
-No wide-screen display (despite what the Apple website says, 1024-by-768 is NOT wide-screen)
-Internal Battery, and having to use a dock connector to charge.
-1Ghz processor is pretty underpowered these days.
-No DVD, CD, or Blu-ray drive.
-No HDMI output
-No Camera (means no photo or video capture)


The Ugly:
-The iPad does not run a full operating system... it runs apps, like the iPod Touch & iPhone.
-It's dependence on custom hardware accessories like camera connection kit, video output adapters...etc.

The Roundup:
Ok, I'm just going to say it. Ready? Here it goes:  While I think that the iPad can serve many functions, I believe that it's pretty much just a large iPod Touch.  I'm sure that many will try to dispute this fact, but if you really stand back and look at all of it's features (runs apps, internal battery, needs to be docked to another computer to upload/download data...etc) I think you'd agree.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing... but I think that most people expected it to be a standalone computer that could run the Apple OS and compete against other Laptops.  It's dependence on being able to just run apps hinders it's ability to reach it's full potential.  Sure, there are apps out there to do office work (iWork) and other useful stuff, but then the iPad is also limited by it's 1Ghz CPU.  Any way you look at it, it's just not as powerful or useful as a full fledged computer.  It's more like another  fun "toy" to play games and kill time with.  With that said, if you already own a pod Touch or phone... is there really enough of a reason to get this thing?  I'll leave that up to you to decide.  As for me, I find it a little bit disappointing (just saying!).

One thing is for sure though, the low introductory price for the wifi only version of the iPad ($499) will definitely set the standard for tablet pc prices... and that's a very good thing indeed. It means that if competitors want to successfully sell similar products, they may have to sell theirs for even less.  Whatever the outcome (success or failure),  Apple has changed the market of touch-screen tablet devices forever.