I really think we need to redo the labels given by number of posts. Make the first 50-100 to show Visitor or Needing Enlightment. We see so many people here with less than 10 posts that are just here to gripe about what the iPad does not have. They ignore that it does not have the failure rate of the other tablets. It does not have the vulnerabilities of an open source system. It does not get rated in comparison to the standard; It is the standard. And so many of the remarks are of the order of "Wait til my big brother Android beats you up".
And every argument starts with "The iPad does not support Flash", before getting into iTunes, no USB, etc. The fact is that the iPad is a wonder of technology. No other electronics device has had this impact so quickly coming onto the market. The reason for this is that Steve Jobs is a genious at knowing when to bring out products. He is a visionary, and they are rare. Without him, Apple came close to closing shop. He will eventually be gone, and when that happens, it is hoped that he will have the people in place to continue his work. If not, Apple will just be another computer company.
All this complaining is worthless. A few whiners are not going to change Apple's plans. While they are bringing out the iPad 2, they are planning the iPad 5 or 6. It takes years to bring a product like this to production. The only things that they change is minor additions/deletions to match the market forces. If the competiton had ben quicker to respong, there might have been a few gee whiz gadgets to woo the public. Since they have seen little competition, they will stick with a few basic upgrades to be safe. Gee Whiz is riskier, but gets attention. Do not forget that Apple has always been an early manufacturer to delete old technology. No Macintosh had 5.25" floppies, and the iMac was the first to drop 3.5" floppies for optical drives. Now it looks like within the year, they will drop optical drives on the Macbook series. Why not, since it would be easy enough to go with SD or USB if a backup copy of the system is needed. We may see networked optical drives being used instead of each machine having one.
When Jobs and Apple decide to add or delete a device, it is always a good idea to think outside the box. You may think you need a device, but find that 2-3 years later, it is rarely used. I am hearing more and more about who is getting away from flash, and little about those who are adding flash. All technology is fleeting. OSX introduced the dock to the mac experience, but now it is be supplemented by the app feel. More than the look, is how Lion will allow us to add and delete programs. The app system developed for the iPhone is so simple, it will greatly improve the experience on all computers. Eventually you will probably see it copied on all systems to some degree.
