If you were to receive a simplistic view you could argue that the iPad is simply a scaled up iPhone and as a result there is nowhere new to go. There has certainly been a lot of negative criticism that has accompanied the pre-release hype. Many have looked at the possible lack of flash support as the mark of doom and others have touted the possible lack of camera facilities.

Despite this the interest in the iPad has certainly been feverish and shows no sign of fading away just yet. Just in case you had forgotten out of all madness the iPhone has attracted, and still does, a lot of of criticism from release to this day. Sales figures show us that negativity may just be the not necessarily so popular kids being a little bit jealous of the very popular kid in school.

No matter what anybody says the iPad promises to become piece of technology that captures the imagination and it is easy to understand why. If you were a fan of sci-fi for any length of time then you can have been immersed in countless stories set in star ships and worlds littered with "data slates". The terminology will have varied according to the program that you watched or the book you read but the idea is likewise. The sculpted beauty of the iPad is most certainly a helping factor to that illusion. If you look closely you won't see a laptop, you see something else entirely.

Yes the word illusion did creep straight into the article and yes there is always a danger to selling style over function. That said a Ferrari is small, cramped, comes with very little interior features comparable to a luxury saloon and is a nightmare to reverse park, but your wife wouldn't complain if you owned one.

The iPad is right at the beginning of a life cycle and we should take our time before judging it a gigantic clone. The software will have to be developed to get to its' maximum potential. So for now the iPad looks like a rounder wheel but it looks like a wheel with a rampant stallion emblazoned across its' chest.