After the Stupendous success of its flagshop Smartphone "Iphone" in 2007, rumour mills has been strong for some time now on a tablet being developed by Apple fianlly put to rest today. The iPad, which is larger in size but similar in design to Apple's popular iPhone, was billed by CEO
Steve Jobs as
"so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smart phone" and "It's phenomenal to hold the Internet in your hands."
With a 9.7-inch touch screen, is a half-inch thick, weighs 1.5 pounds and comes with 16, 32 or 64 gigabytes of flash memory storage.Like the iPhone and iPod, it sports a finger-friendly OS with an on-screen QWERTY keyboard, and an accelerometer that can detect whether the device is in portrait or landscape mode. It has a 30-pin dock connector, built-in Wi-Fi, and a home button that jumps users back to the main screen of the OS. It also has a volume rocker and a mute button--just like the iPhone. The basic iPad models will cost $499, $599 and $699, depending on the storage size.
Apple says it can get 10 hours of video, which is about four more than the iPod Touch and the same as the latest generation iPhone. This translates to "a month" of standby time.They will also be selling a version of the iPad that includes both Wi-Fi and a 3G wireless modem built in. iPad users who want to make use of the 3G service, which is being offered by AT&T, can pick up one of two plans for that: $15 a month for 250MB of data, or unlimited for $29.99 a month. 
As for apps, the iPad's screen runs larger than what can be found on Apple's smaller portable devices, which means developers have more screen real estate to work with. At the same time, the iPad is backwards compatible with existing iPhone and iPod Touch applications. Apps with smaller screen resolutions are simply scaled up to fit. Apple is giving developers a way to modify their applications to work with both sets of hardware.
A new content delivery system called iBooks (not to be confused with Apple's former laptop line, the iBook) is also geeting introduced. The new app features a virtual bookshelf with content from five major publishers: HarperCollins, Hachette,Penguin, Macmillan, and Simon & Shuster.Apple's announcement that it is diving into the growing e-book business puts the company on a collision course with Amazon. Jobs credited Amazon with pioneering e-readers with the Kindle but said "we are going to stand on their shoulders and go a little bit farther"
So What does the Critics have to say ?
For the Critics, the iPad lacks some features common in laptops and phones, as technology enthusiasts were quick to point out. To its instant critics, it was little more than a oversize iPod Touch. A camera is notably absent, and Flash, the ubiquitous software that handles video and animation on the Web, does not work on the device.
HDTVs aside, the consumer electronics industry has successfully driven home the idea that smaller is better: You don't want a desktop PC, you want a notebook. You don't want a notebook, you want a netbook. You don't want a netbook, you want a smartphone that can run hundreds of tiny applications, dubbed "apps." (Even the words get smaller.) And now, perhaps, here's Apple, trying to convince us of the exact opposite, even as the iPhone continues to sell ridiculously well.
One question Apple faces is whether there is enough room for another device in the cluttered lives of consumers ?!
What does have Apple have to say ?
"The target audience is everyone," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president for strategy and analysis at Interpret, a market research firm. "Apple does not build products for just the enthusiasts. It doesn't build for the tens of thousands; it builds for the tens of millions."
In 2001, Bill Gates predicted at an industry trade show that tablets would be the most popular form of PC sold in America within five years.The fact that he and Microsoft didn't deliver is surprising
What does expert Analysts say ?
Experts say they have heard similar criticism before - once aimed at the iPhone, which has now been bought by more than 42 million people around the world. These believers say Apple's judgment on the market is nearly infallible.
The success of the iPhone and its cousin, the iPod Touch, have shown a path for tablets. People have been willing to pay to customize those devices with applications, turning them into video game machines, compasses, city guides and e-book reader
