[timerickson]

I think the point you raise is valid, but the way you arrive to it is disingenuous.

North of $700? The iPad starts at $500, and recently, the iPad Mini at $330. Granted the Mini is late in this timeline, but it stands to reason the price point is closer than you're making it out to be.

Secondly, an "incomplete OS" is a fallacy. It's complete to the spec it was designed for. Yes, that means its not intended to be a fully-fledged desktop OS, but its not inherently incomplete, just focused.

Thirdly, "running two programs simultaneously" – I'd wager that many netbook users (myself included) found the netbook so limiting and simple that it was only ever used for doing one thing at a time, such as reading email, browsing the web, listening to music or reading a book; all of which now accomplished by the iPad.

[dizzystar]

Fair points. I'm sort of going by the price points from when the iPad first came out and I really don't recall the real price, but the baseline was definitely higher than today's baseline models. Quick search suggest $500 for the baseline, which isn't competitive to $300.

Yes, I agree that the "incomplete" OS is sort of a fallacy, but not in all cases. Even if the iPad started up at $300, I'm pretty sure most people, especially those who had no computer at all, would dive toward a netbook, since yes, you could run Word + Browse the Web + listen to music (no flash! no youtube!), plus, you know, type on it. The big fallacy with the article is that the author is suggesting that an iPad could have replaced a netbook, and this, I hope you agree, simply was not, and is not, the case, and I really don't believe that many people would have bought an iPad if they didn't already have a computer of some sort, though I could be wrong here.

In regards to how much you can push an Intel Atom. Well, let's see here. I watched youtube lecture videos, ran Python IDLE, and even had other programs open while doing all of this. I also had successfully installed and ran MySQL, Xampp, Drupal, Gimp, and Emacs simultaneously. Not saying this is optimal, but just saying that you could do it. I ran Eclipse and Java for a week to test those waters too. It was fine for my first forays into development, so I think it would have been okay for the Average User. I still have the thing sitting on my shelf.

[fpgeek]

> I really don't believe that many people would have bought an iPad if they didn't already have a computer of some sort, though I could be wrong here.

When the iPad came out didn't you need a computer (with iTunes) to activate it? I vaguely recall Apple offering to activate iPads at Apple Stores at some point, but I'd presume the vast majority of iPad users didn't need that.