[exabrial]

iPads are mainly toys, many years later.

Speaking from in-person experience only: I do see a few niche cases where people have used them professionally with success (a tattoo artist friend, a builder (frames houses)). I also played in a band that used multitracks on an iPad. This is the minority use cases for it.

The largest deployment I see for iPads is simply POS terminals. They're over-engineered for this purpose, and likely won't have software updates long enough for the lifespan of POS terminals the likes of WalMart however.

The second largest deployment I see is expensive entertainment devices for kids. They're given to them to keep them busy.

Netbooks were valuable years ago. It's a great paradigm. Apple initially had the Air to grab this market segment, but slowly drifted the Air into an expensive premium product.

The success of the Neo shows consumer demand is very strong in the segment.