I've been reading an enormous volume of uninformed crap about the iPad, and as usual, I'm bewildered at the depth of ignorance displayed by so-called technology experts.

Or is it laziness? Whoring?

There is simply nothing revolutionary about the iPad, which isn't to say it isn't a nice piece of hardware, polished to remarkable utility by Apple's notorious attention to detail. I certainly give them props for that, especially since I'm waiting for a phone call from Dell's local service rep to come replace the motherboard in my less-than-two-year old XPS laptop.

Revolutionary though? Well, not in a technical sense, and not really in the business sense either. At this moment, the iPad is, strictly-speaking--a toy. Its rather remarkable that a machine that literally clones the iTouch's functionality in larger, more unwieldy package, is garnering so much attention and stimulating our collective instincts to reach for and possess shiny objects.

The initial surge of sales reminds me of the Macbook Air, which was frankly, a much more significant technical achievement. As they got past the more-bucks-than-brains niche, the Air just didn't offer much more than gadget-oneupmanship and sales slumped accordingly (and to some, predictably).

Considering how few books, newspapers and magazines are read these days, the idea that Apple is going to do to the publishing industry what its done to the music business has the same underlying logic as the Obama regime's so-called stimulus bill. Which is to say they hope you believe it even as they chortle into their sleeves. The publishing industry already has a remarkably durable form factor in the paperback, which is smaller than an iPad, costs a fraction, doesn't run out of power and can be easily traded, lent and sold without running afoul of Digital Rights Management (DRM) nonsense.

I'm about as digital a guy as there is, but I generally prefer reading an honest-to-God book made from trees, although I will admit to reading e-books on my iPhone.

Why the iPhone and not an iPad? Because the iPhone fits in my shirt pocket and when I am idled for any reason, its quite easy for me to launch the Stanza app and read one of the classics that I probably wouldn't otherwise have time for. The iPhone/Stanza app combination works because it exploits small slices of time and doesn't require me to prepare for these moments by bringing along a text or otherwise giving any forethought to the matter.

This is defined as utility. The iPad simply doesn't have any that a Macbook doesn't do better at the high end, and an iPhone (or iTouch) doesn't do better at the low end.

How I ditched my Blackberry and got an iPhone is an instructive story, which involved the evangelism of existing owners who were doing useful things with it that they previously couldn't. While visiting my daughter down in California, I availed myself of her roommate's laptop to allow us to get on to the WIFI. I found it strange, that while traveling, that her roommate would have left her laptop behind. My daughter's explanation was illuminating--her iPhone made the laptop redundant.

Perhaps the iPad will yet yield a killer app that will make it indispensable, but its hard to see how when its essentially a instance of iTouch giganticism.