Take my wife for example. Her iPad has replaced her netbook completely and it actually does more than her netbook did for her.

When she is away for work visits she needs a machine that is:

- as light as possible
- as small as possible (it gets to spend the day in her hand bag)
- is usable for writing up/editing her notes

It meets these criteria well, it takes up less space than the netbook and is a fair bit lighter* . She even prefers the keyboard on the iPad to the cramped netbook one.

But as well as doing what the netbook did, the iPad also does a bunch of stuff that the netbook couldn't. She used to carry a big stack of printouts of the relevant papers when she went away, now she just shoves the PDFs onto the iPad. She also typically doesn't take a book to read, as again she reads on the iPad.

So yes, a tablet really can be a device for improving productivity.

* especially as given the iPad's battery life she doesn't always need to take the PSU with her