We won't know until March, but the Apple iPad (I don't like the name as much as iTablet) will either create another revolution or … maybe not. If you check the Apple demo at the iTunes store, you'll be impressed — a number of Apple senior VPs, ones involved in iPad's creation — speak eloquently about the product. If Amazon does — as is says — sell three Kindle e-books for every 10 paper and print books, the battle for control of e-reading should be interesting in 2010.
Of course Apple's pad does a bunch of stuff–shows videos, handles e-mail, surfs the net, has color and much of the interactive appeal of the iPod and iPhone. The pricing for iPad starts at $599. That is more than the competition, chiefly Kindle and SONY, but the iPad does all that Kindle and SONY do, plus lots more (did I mention color, e-mail and videos, including movies; did I mention 10-hour battery life, which may be enough for three or four movies during a long flight?). I thought of it as a quiet way to take notes, too, since the on-Pad keyboard looks interesting (it's almost the size of a standard laptop keyboard).
I think I would have named it Alexandria, in honor of the famous library, but I guess that wouldn't fit with the "I" motif.