iPads are cool...popular...and I am seeing more business people using them.
I also have seen iPad users who purchased special covers to protect the screen, stands to position them on tables and desks and conventional keyboards they connected to them because they didn't care for the virtual key pad. It looks to me that they just converted their iPad into a laptop, albeit, at a higher cost and with fewer computing capabilities.
Eddie

Here is my take on the ipad or any comparable tablet...
they do not compete with a quality laptop...period..

I agree. If someone said you can have either an iPad or a good laptop I'd opt for the laptop due to the nature of my work.

On the subject of the novelty of the iPad, for me it's not a novelty. I've dropped all paper subscriptions to newspapers and magazines because they are delivered digitally to my iPad. I no longer have to carry multiple binders to gigs with lead sheets, they are all stored in my iPad. When we travel my wife and I watch movies in-flight.

I do dabble in photography and there isn't really a better way to display some of the work I've done. I'm also able to print docs on the fly wirelessly as well, very handy.

Not all is novelty but for the average Joe or Jane it can be.

Can you and wife watch a movie simultaneously?

I agree. If someone said you can have either an iPad or a good laptop I'd opt for the laptop due to the nature of my work.

On the subject of the novelty of the iPad, for me it's not a novelty. I've dropped all paper subscriptions to newspapers and magazines because they are delivered digitally to my iPad. I no longer have to carry multiple binders to gigs with lead sheets, they are all stored in my iPad. When we travel my wife and I watch movies in-flight.

I do dabble in photography and there isn't really a better way to display some of the work I've done. I'm also able to print docs on the fly wirelessly as well, very handy.

Not all is novelty but for the average Joe or Jane it can be.

Stephen, what I am referring to mostly...are the apps that just touch on certain programs, and do not suffice the user that was expecting more...."Garage band" app is a perfect example...the $5 app is more like "garbage band" compared to the more expensive, but usable program..

Sure the new ipad looks great..screen etc...they could have had this last year or two generations ago...they are milking the consumer...in some areas they still are catching up to the competition..

Hope you understand my "novelty" words a little better....