A lot of people don't get the iPad and you seem to be one of them. You don't understand that a large format multitouch product allows for different types of interaction than can be achieved on a laptop.
I understand that different interactions are achievable, but only a handful of these interactions are actually superior. Most are inferior.
Typing anything more than a few words is a pain on the iPad compared to an iPhone and especially compared to a notebook. Watching movies is a pain because not only do you have to prop the device up yourself, but you also have to accept the smaller screen size.
You state that the MacBook Air is just a portable as an iPad but it isn't. You can't stand on the train and watch a movie on a MacBook Air.
Have you actually done this? I haven't seen anyone stand and watch a movie on a train (or any other public transit) and I'm a pretty aggressive rider of public transit. Every iPad I've seen on buses and trains has been in the hands of a seated person. I even recall one person who stood for about 10 minutes on a crowded train and only took out his iPad after a seat opened up.
Granted this may have been because the original was too heavy to hold up for too long with one hand. I suppose this could change with time as they become lighter and slimmer.
You can't flick through the pages of a book with one hand while holding it in the other - at least not comfortably. It's also twice he price for an entry level model.
A Kindle (or other e-ink device) works much better for reading. Not only are they a lot cheaper, lighter, and thinner, but they don't cause eye strain (many people can't read off of glossy displays). I have seen tons of these on buses and trains, even while people are standing.
While you would have to spend an additional $139 on an e-ink device and wouldn't have the macbook air, I was merely using the macbook air as a yardstick for value. To have an iPad with 64GB of storage costs 80% as much as a mba with the same storage space and vastly superior capabilities.
You also mistake features for benefits. A feature is all fine and dandy but if I don't need that feature than it's not a selling point. So a product that's twice the costs and nowhere near as portable, despite what you may claim, is not a better option for me unless I need those extra features. If I don't then it's a poor option.
I agree, but I can't think of a benefit in the iPad that I don't already have or that I can't attain at a fraction of the cost elsewhere.
What benefit does it bestow upon you, personally, that you didn't have before or that you couldn't have for less than $500-930? I am genuinely curious to know this, because for the life of me I can't figure it out.
If I want to read, I already have a (cheaper and better) reading device. If I want to watch movies, I already have a tv and a 15" mbp. If I want to surf the web, I have my mbp and an iPhone. If I want to play games I have an iPhone and a mbp, and get-togethers with Wii/xbox. If I want to type something longer than a few words, I have an iPhone and a mbp.
Also, it isn't about what it can do that no other device can do. The iPhone can't do anything that I can't do on other devices but it does allow me to do certain things very easily and more conveniently than I can do them on other devices. That means it has a value.
These are precisely the qualifications I had placed on utility previously. I put forth in an earlier post that utility could be gained in a number of ways, whether it was through aggregation of abilities, an ability to perform a particular set of abilities better, or through the ability to perform a variety of tasks better on average (even if some of them are poorer on the new device). The iPhone is a perfect example of an aggregation device. It doesn't really do much extremely well (there are better browsers, better phones, better iPods, better game devices) but it does do them all in one, which makes it very valuable.
The iPad is better than a laptop for portability and better than a smartphone for viewing media and reading documents.
This is a very narrow set of gains relative to the price. Everyone needs a phone and everyone needs a computer (well almost), so even though smartphones and laptops aren't able to perfectly overlap, they offer a lot of simplicity in that consumers can spend less and achieve a great deal of what they need. There are pockets where this is a problem (our hypothetical train rider who wants to watch a movie while standing up), but how big is this pocket? How likely is it that this pocket is the determining factor to define a need?
Also, how well can the pocket be filled by alternative buying choices? I think all of these factors point to the iPad as being unnecessary for most of us. Again, I have to reiterate that this doesn't mean that buying one is a bad thing. If it brings you happiness to use it, then I don't care. I just think it should be put into perspective. This is a toy and it is largely duplicative.
To suggest that 15 million people bought one last year purely out of gadget lust is frankly insulting to those 15 million people
I'm sure millions last year smoked cigarettes or bought time shares. The consumer is not a wise person, and it would be even unwiser to follow him blindly.
and defys the massive amount of evidence provided by many users as to how the device has made their lives easier or helped them be more productive.
Subjective perceptions of efficiency are always suspect. There is no way to accurately control for many large factors, and if someone is enjoying their new iPad, they may not bother to factor in the time it took to do certain tasks.
However, if someone can offer a unique application of the iPad that was previously undoable or difficult to perform, then that would be a real piece of evidence for its productive value.
I don't mean to sound like a curmudgeon. I want to like the iPad a lot, and I would buy one immediately if I thought I could use it for more than the occasional bout of fun. I really do wish someone could convince me of its utility, but even after playing with it for a while on several occasions, I still haven't figured out how it would be useful.