Hi Pete,

If you judge the iPad as a traditional PC it fails utterly. But that's by design. It's not trying to be a traditional PC. It's trying to be an appliance. It's the TiVo to your media centre PC. It's a thing to let people without computer skills get computer stuff done and enjoy it. Are there people out there who need to do computery things but have no computer skills and are scared of computers? Yes - billions. Those are the people this device is for. It's not for the techno-geeks who derive genuine pleasure from building their own machines from the ground up. You find being able to run many OSes liberating, people who are scared of computers don't. In fact, Windows is daunting to them. But the iPad isn't. No idea what a file is? Who cares! Never heard of a folder? great! You just point at stuff with your finger and it does stuff. Watch people with absolutely no computer skills at all use an iPhone. They take to it like a duck to water. The iPad should be the same. Mac developer Steven Frank is much more eloquent that me, so I'll just link to him: http://stevenf.tumblr.com/post/359224392/i-need-to-talk-to-you-about-computers-ive-been

Oh - also, just some small corrections the iPad will work with any standard bluetooth keyboard, and it has the oilophobic coating that the new iPhone 3GS has that stops your screen getting smudged by actively repelling oils.

I also don't think this is novelty device. I think it's the future of commodity computing. It's never going to replace the PC or the Mac, because nothing ever seems to get replaced in IT. You and I are living proof of that, we spend most of our day typing commands into a terminal afterall!

The iPhone massively outsells Mac. Massively. The iPad is a computer for anyone who knows how to use an iPod or an iPhone. That's a WAY WAY bigger market than just Mac users. Mac users are in the minority when it comes to iPods and iPhones, and it will be the same for the iPad. What ever this turns out to be, a huge success or a flop, it's certainly not a play to just the Mac fanboys.

I can't prove they won't gather dust, but I really don't think so. As for your evil comment, I'm sorry but try as I might I genuinely can't figure out what you're trying to say.

Bart.