[dextorious]

"""All I see is that the iPad's physical design is as much a derivative of all those that came before as the rest are derivative of the iPad's."""

The only thing in common the devices previous to the iPad have with it is that they all have a rectangular screen. I'll give you that. Apart from that though, they are totally different.

And that's from the external design aspect.

From a UI aspect it's night and day.

The devices after the iPad, now, copied both from it.