@Macintoshtoffy
I think this is an important point. A lot of people, including initially myself, look at the iPad through laptop tainted glasses.
Desktop computers, laptops, netbooks, Sun Rays, etc - pretty everything with a multitude of "human interface devices" are geared around active use. By active use, I basically mean "work" and "gaming" with very broad definitions. The key difference being the user is very actively interacting with the machine. These types of usages are how my own personal conception of computing formed. Computing is an active endeavor.
But a lot of computing today is passive media consumption. For me, at least, the web has almost entirely replaced both television and print periodicals. But it has not replaced printed books.
Why hasn't the computer replaced books? Because sitting at my desk staring at a glowing screen is not the most comfortable way to read. Especially to read for pleasure. I don't own an iPad or e-book reader, although with recent price drops on Nook and Kindle I'm seriously considering buying one. It would be really nice to have something for comfortably reading papers (meaning academic papers, not news papers).
Anyway, the point being devices like this are for accessing media and information, which is primarily what the average consumer computer user does.
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