[ryantriangles]

"just going to be a big iPhone (...) lay back in bed and casually browse the web, read magazines, watch movies, play games? On something with a decently large screen" -- isn't that just a big iPhone, then? Especially now that the iPhones are fairly large themselves, and mobile layouts are almost universal. I have an iPad, but I've never really found a good use for it. Web browsing, reading, and watching videos I find more comfortable on a phone (or a Kindle) I can hold in one hand. The form factor of the iPad combined with its touch screen means I can never find a comfortable way of holding it long-term.

To me the big draw of the iPad is that it combines the simplicity of a phone OS with a screen that can render large fonts and still be usable. That's great for people with poor eyesight, like my grandparents, who can fit only a few words at a time onto a 5" phone display and who find the Windows interface frustrating (being full of small buttons, accidentally-pressed keyboard shortcuts, things minimizing to the tray, and multiple windows containing multiple tabs). As someone lucky enough to have escaped that problem so far the iPad exists in a strange halfway point between a laptop (large, powerful, keyboard-equipped, capable of running and doing anything) and a phone (comfortable, portable, long-lasting) that's never quite right for the job.

Admittedly I've never used the Pencil which I imagine can be quite nifty.