Apple fans have their names in, the rest of of the world is less impressed by iPad

First the gushing reports and now the reality is setting in: Apple has not changed the world with iPad.

It’s just another improvement in a long line of computing devices. Let’s face it we, as in the techno-weenie part of the population, crave gadgets. Apple will sell out the initial batch if tablet computers based on style, marketing savvy and dedicated Mac-head fan base. After that, the market may not rush to Apple’s door.

It will appear that Apple now owns the tablet market but in reality the biggest producer of tablet computers will be someone like Acer or HP. It’s the same as the iPhone: we assume Apple has the lion’s share of the market because that’s all the press write about. Nokia, with more than 40% market share, is the largest maker of 3G and legacy cell phones. Samsung is next. Apple is growing quickly and someday may get to 8% of the market, someday.

After the hype and hoopla, what is the iPad? It’s a large iTouch – plays music, videos except Flash which is most of what’s out there, runs one application at a time, has a bigger screen because baby-boomers like Steve Jobs can’t surf the web on an iPhone, and costs $60 a month to own amortizing it over 2 years plus the 3g fee. With a fully loaded iPad cost north of $800, a netbook costs about half of that with a better keyboard, more weight and without 3G access, which means you need wi-fi to get on the net.

I got an iTouch for the music and videos only to find out Apple made it difficult for me to watch videos unless I bought them from the iTunes store. That seemed like a waste of money since I have the videos already. That’s the Apple way. They are selling razors and razor blades with the iPad, iPhone and iTouch. We buy the toys and then keep giving money to Apple forever. While I stopped using the iTouch within a few months, it got resurrected by someone else recently as a wi-fi email device.

One thing the iPad might do better than a notebook or netbook is not burn your lap but we’ll see. My iPhone 3Gs gets as hot as hell when I use it too long. My HP laptop is too uncomfortably hot to use on a lap.

A commentator on Bloomberg said it would be great to load up a new e-book, some new movies, the latest magazine and take it on a long flight. OK that’s a big part of the population who take long flights that they don’t need to work on a laptop.