I almost didn't get the ipad 1. I waited a week before deciding to get it after it first hit shelves and have been using one ever since. When first using it, it did feel a little bit magical. I didn't expect to use it aside from email and web. But now i use it for lots of things. Pre ipad, i was all pro pc, now i just use my tower for the more graphic intensive stuff. My pc laptop just collects dust now, as the ipad replaces it in spades. I use less electricity as my pc isn't quite on so much.
It's not necessarily about the brand or company who made the ipad, but how well and seamless the device works. That's why android, etc. are still playing catchup even if they may have better tech under the hood. If there was more tech in the ipad 1 debut, most likely the battery duration would suffer. Though i thought they could have done much better with the crappy cam the ipad 2 had, i still got it and sold the 1st gen. If i had only a few uses with the ipad. I would have skipped one or two generations. But now that i can finally create and edit a movie with music on one device, i am all over that upgrade. While voice recognition already has an app for that, integrating it into the ios puts it on a slightly higher level. Soon i'll be able to speak these message posts and cut out a bit of typing.
For the future, there will always be upgrades to warrant a new version of the iPad, but those updates may not happen every year. But a faster and lower power cpu/gpu, more system ram, better camera, more storage, longer battery, and siri are all probable down the road.