iPad – Is "Tap" the new "Click"? Initial Thoughts & Questions (with a side of sarcasm)

After months and months of speculation and unicorns (which I honestly lost interest in pretty quickly –yes, it’s an awsome new toy, but I can wait a few weeks without reading 500 “preview” reports) Sir Jobs finally gave us the goods today: the iPad. 

No, this is not a virtual Always, with wings (does no one else make that association)??

It’s a “revolutionary” advancement in digital, portable technology. 

Here are my initial thoughts (and I’ll preface this by saying that obivously I want one and wish that I was Steve Jobs :)

Also, think some of my sarcasm comes from the fact that the demo seems a bit patronizing... but maybe I'm reading too much into this... 

Unicorns:

The very first line of the video kind of irks me... "when something exceeds you ability to understand how it works, it kind of becomes magical" -(Jony Ive).  I don't know how my microwave works, but I'm pretty sure it ain't magic.

Tap vs Click:

In the demo video they make a big deal out of the fact that it feels really natural to hold a computer in your hands…  hmm, that’s what I do with my laptop… well, hold it in my lap...

They also talk about tapping to navigate rather than clicking, and it seems like a lot of the navigation is done by pinching in and out.   “If you see something, just reach out and tap it... it's completely natural... You don't even think about it, you just do” (Scott Forestall).

While I haven’t tried one yet, so am not sure how natural the tapping feels, I dont really think about clicking either.

I like:

Pinching photos on this scale is cool.

I’m obsessed with maps, so the map function here makes me drool (ok maybe I like maps too much…)? 

Nice that you can import all of your iPhone apps (would be a pain to have to purchase again).

SDK - developers can build apps specifically for the iPad – depending on the penetration of the iPad, this may obviously be a new fronteir for marketers.  Especially because of the large screen combined with multi touch.  Will be hugeee for gaming / social gaming.

Up to 10 hours of battery life = sweet

I’m not sure about:

They seem really proud of their calendar, which I’m sure has a fab interface.  Personally, my Blackberry (or mobile) is my diary because it is with me whereever I go.  Therefore, the iPad calendar wouldn’t be as useful to me because I wouldn’t carry it everywhere – plus I’d have to sync it with my mobile.      

Kindle Killer?? I’m not sure yet… Apple’s design is a lot sexier, but Kindle has the same functinality in terms of purchasing books directly from the device and is still cheaper…  

Starts at $499 = also sweet – but how much does it hold and how fast it is once I’ve downloaded loads of apps, books, docs, etc?

Would be great if it had a built-in camera for iChat – so that you could video conference from virtually anywhere.  That would really compete with the iPhone for me.   Does anyone know if the iPad has a microphone?

One of the biggest issues I see so far is that apparently it doesn't support Flash?? What up HTML...

The Big Question:

How does this compete with my MacBook in terms of functionality? Is this a replacement laptop for light users? If I own an iPad, how will that affect my laptop consumption?

What do you think?