To be fair, and I've no doubt many will disagree 🙂
Apple opened themselves up to the pretty valid criticism that it's just a big iPhone, or more accurately a big iPod Touch by not redesigning the UI front end.
If you have a UI that's made for a 3.5" screen, and just blow the graphics up for a 10" screen, Of course it's going to be criticised as that's all you have done.
And, though people here may choose to deny it. If you had polled most people, even on these forums before the iPad launch, I don't think the majority would have thought this was all Apple was going to do. Basically just blow up the graphics to fit the bigger screen.
You would have thought Apple would have made a new UI for the larger screen format and made a lot better use of the way bigger area.
I'm not sure what Android Honeycomb is going to do.
If they take all the graphics from a current Mobile, such as the HTC Desire, and just scale it all up to fit a 10" screen, then we can all throw the same criticism back at them.
Oh, the Android Table is just a big android phone.
But I don't think they will do that, as that would be stupid.
And in the same way is was stupid, yes, perhaps that's a harsh word, but perhaps very narrow minded is better to just take the same UI and blow it up from the iPhone to the iPad.
I've no doubt Android front end/UI's will be designed to make more use the the size/form factor of the larger device.
Perhaps Apple will change, but to be honest, I don't think they will change yet. I think they will start to look incredibly old fashioned, perhaps iPad 3 or 4 before they actually bring forward a new UI that better makes use of the screen.
Not just icons on a static background and that's it.
That's the sort of UI I'd expect on something like a dumb iPod for playing music on a tiny screen where it's too small to really display anything else.
Not on a 10" tablet computers screen.
Be very interesting to see how things are this time next year.
We should be used to scalable UI's though. I mean, it would be COOL if Apple had a different UI for each screen size (but maybe not, it would be something to re-learn), but look at Windows, OSX, Windows Mobile, et al. It doesn't matter if I am running on a tiny netbook or hooked up to a 120" projector screen, Windows, basically, looks the same. Things scale, but the UI doesn't change to take advantage of the screen real estate, nor change to accommodate the small screen. Third party apps sometimes do, but the OS doesn't. Apple isn't going anything different here, so why CRITICIZE someone for doing what we should really expect? It's like criticizing Ford for making the new Ford Edge with four wheels!
Also, someone above asked if I worked in the business/marketing field, no, I don't.
And don't forget, the people who write these articles, and the people who post on this forum, are a niche group of power users. There is an older woman I know who likes to have a smartphone to stay connected. The problem she had with her android phone is, she downloaded Apps that caused it to crash and lock up, she tried to customize it, got it to the point where she couldn't hardly use the thing and couldn't figure out how to revert it, had apps running in the background killing her battery, etc. Things that for the people here, are absolutely non-issue, but for her it was difficult. She just recently got an iPhone 4, and she loves it. She never worries about anything, it always works, and she feels comfortable exploring and playing and etcetera, because she isn't going to push a button and screw the whole thing up! Apple needs to hold on to that market because it's much much bigger than you think. (Understand what I'm saying here, I understand that someone who knows what they are doing can be very powerful with an Android device, but a not-so-tech-savvy 'dummy', will have a much better time with that simple, albeit function-lacking UI)
Finally, the above who mentioned the "big portable computer". I am not for a second denying that the Galaxy Tab isn't a great device. It's too small for me (not that it's too small to use, it's just that it doesn't present an advantage over my iPhone's screen, for all practical purposes.) The thing for me is, the iPad is big enough to distinguish it as, yes, a portable computer, NOT a tiny gadget.
And yes, I remember the trend in technology to go smaller and smaller, and it is funny how now it's getting bigger and bigger. I actually laughed at one of the (HTC?) commercials commenting on how BIG their smartphone was. It's true! That's what sells now! Before, they would be saying "It's 1/100th of an inch smaller than the other guys!"