The cameras suck. Big time. But to be fair (not to Apple), I think Gruber did say the same thing. The cameras in the iPod are equally crap, likely because they're the same parts. I'm not even a huge fan of the camera in the iPhone, though it's leaps and bounds better.

And no one (including myself, Gruber and the Macalope) is arguing that Apple's update is not incremental. Definitely not revolutionary like the first revision. But let's be real. No one had caught up to the first version yet. The revision is over 2 times faster with graphics easily 9x faster, putting all dedicated gaming hardware to shame except the PS3 and XBOX 360 by all accounts. In an 8.8mm thick tablet of all things.

Even if you discount the insanely positive response from customers around the globe, the other players in the industry have already also been remarking and changing their business plans because of this incremental product. MOtorola has commented that it's their SECOND Xoom that will be the ticket. Samsung has stopped plans to release the tablets they debuted a couple of months ago in most markets and have instead started working on something else to come out in June - something they don't even have ready to show prototypes of.

There are a number of companies out there that can come out with something that blows the iPad away in terms of specs. But when many people talk about this, they forget that Apple itself is also one of those companies. Most people forget that Apple has more money, more manufacturing capacity, better supply management and (of all things) a better track record than anyone else. But this isn't a specs race anyway. It's not specs that are obviously selling this product.

But to brush it all off as marketing tricks is also completely out to lunch. There's an emotional tie, but after using one it's not difficult to form a rational decision as to the many uses one can put such a product to.

If anything, Noyes article was fueled more by emotion than the purchasing habits of the people buying tablets. Most of of whom are Windows PC users by the way. The numbers just can't reflect anything else.

Even though I'm getting one myself, I still feel pretty much the same way about tablets as I did prior to the iPad launch and which I've talked about here. I can see a ton of vertical/dedicated uses for one, even around my house, but it's not a product I'd be likely to use or carry around constantly. My impetus at this point is to get my 18mo daughter using technology.