"The feature that made the iPad infinitely more useful for lots of different tasks is its massive platform of third party applications, which are all available in a central repository... no reason why a desktop/laptop OS platform can?t have an app store. I recently noted that Ubuntu Linux 10.04 offers a nice step in that direction."
Hate to break it to you, Jason, but linux has used central repositories for software installation and unified updating for years. While they don't typically sell software through these repositories, as is the case of the app store, it does still offer a "massive platform of third party applications" that you say the consumer is looking for. This is not some new, revolutionary idea by Apple; but rather, just an existing concept they realized they could make money through.
The funny thing is that before the central repository (app store) idea was made popular by Apple, linux was put down for using this model of software installation - because it was different and unfamiliar compared to how software was installed in Windows.
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