I didn't mean you should watch the keynote to listen to Steve. I've already mentioned that he wasn't his usual self anyway. You should watch it to see the device in use.

The iPad will allow you to buy books directly on the device. Those books can include color images, moving images, video. They can and will include text books, magazines and newspapers. We're in agreement that this is a nice feature that isn't currently terribly practical on the iPod/iPhone, right? I mean you said it already about the Kindle, a device that until recently cost $350, had a shit display, was slow, crippled with a small screen and lets Amazon delete your books at will.

This device will let people do whatever it is they want to do on a tablet that current tablets have been unable to do. YMMV

Seriously, to the lay person, this thing just looks cool and that's enough reason for at least some sales. Why does the iPhone completely dominate all Android phones and Palm in sales? What does it do? It's something different to different people and it's not only one thing.

A category of device doesn't mean that one category can't be based on another. You strip down a workstation computer to make a notebook computer, then you strip that down to make a tablet. You strip down a tablet to make a phone. Easy to say, easy to understand. Execution requires "the whole package" and I'm arguing that enough of the package is here this time that hasn't been here before, to make that critical difference. You'll need a spreadsheet to count sales, rather than your fingers.

For some people this will make an ideal way to surf the web. Being able to read a web page as if you're reading a magazine had its strengths. No input devices to worry about, no moving parts, super long lasting battery.

I can see some people putting together a presentation with this product where they can't with a computer. I'm talking about ease of use more-so than portability here.

Photo viewing will be a big deal for others. Could make a very nice machine to have kicking around as a photo album. Here's one of the places where it would be nice to have some streaming ability - but that can be added by third party viewers of course.

Apple as a company being the producer will automatically add to the bottom line. Not because of the "hey this device is cool" factor I mentioned before. Simply because of track record and reliability. Trust for many people.

When someone buys a netbook, they may think, wow, this this is a piece of shit notebook. When someone buys this thing, they're going to think, damn, I can't believe this thing only cost $500. Sure, I'd like to see it at $300, but that's totally unrealistic if Apple is to make a decent ROI.

This POS is going to do well. Not iPhone-well, but well enough. I think you need to realize that I'm not trying to sell it. I'm not trying to convince you or anyone else to like it or buy it. I'm in the place of an anthropologist here observing the reactions from a wide variety of people and making some hypothesis. You're talking to a person who thought, and for the large part still thinks, that tablets are mostly useless. I'm attempting to remove my my personal opinion/bias when trying to look at this thing.