This is mysterious to me. I have an iPad, but I think it's a toy. Probably the best use case is airplane entertainment.
Have you ever heard of George Lucas? [1]
Do we need to send you on a remedial field trip to the local mall on the day after Thanksgiving?
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[1] I'll bet that over the course of my lifetime my family has paid George Lucas far more than the cost of an iPad, for fewer hours of enjoyment. I've probably spent half an iPad's worth on Lucasfilm movie tickets alone.
That may be the issue. Put it on your nightstand or an end-table by a frequently-used chair or couch. Or your kitchen counter when you're cooking. Or at the kitchen table when you're having breakfast.
Or are they explaining to you that the device is for a niche you're not interested in?
I see no problem with recognizing you're less interested in an appliance and more interested in a power tool. I don't see a problem with someone wanting the reverse. Or with someone deciding they would like both. Or neither, for that matter.
It's not supposed to replace your laptop. It's meant for those times or places when the laptop is too cumbersome. Anyone who has a laptop can tell you those situations are plentiful.
You are empirically wrong: I am a counterexample. I do not have any use-cases that aren't covered by a laptop and a smartphone.
I ended up taking it back tonight after having it for less than a week -- it's a nice device, but it's just not for me. I enjoy surfing the web a lot more on my laptop and don't really play many games, so all I really used it for was reading... I can't justify the cost of the iPad just for reading when I can do that just as easily on my phone (all my books are from Project Gutenberg, the Baen Free Library, or Kindle).
Like I said, it's a nice device and I'm sure a lot of people will have a good niche for it, but I'll stick to my phone, my MacBook, and my Vaio running Win7. For me, personally, there's just no room for an in-between device.
I'm also acutely aware of the limitations of soft keyboards. I spend too much time on sites like this one, where I feel compelled to comment, but I find writing anything longer than a search term is highly painful on a soft keyboard. I touch-type about 90 wpm on Dvorak. I can eke out maybe 15 on a soft keyboard, which isn't just painful on the fingers, but on the mind that wants to write as it composes.
How do you know this? Can you point me at some hard data?
That won't matter to those of us who do like it, so long as there are enough of us to keep the market healthy. So far the outlook is pretty positive.
I thought using our own experiences to make conclusions and predictions was how our minds work.
(Those conclusions don't have to be right, however.)
Email, Web surfing, Music, Videos, Casual gaming
Seems like the iPad is a good fit for this simple usage pattern (and much cheaper than a laptop or desktop). I imagine that writing code / hacking around is pretty far low on their list of priorities.
Because the "average Joe" is actually a pretty strange beast:
* his email may be on servers that need weird configurations
* his web surfing includes powerful meme-sources such as youtube. In US, he might actually go to hulu or something similar. His bank might be very fond of some ActiveX thingy to allow online banking. He uses facebook and probably plays one of those flash games.
* his music isn't always legit or always bought via iTunes. How will he buy Amazon music and put it in his iPad without a laptop ?
* his videos might not always be h264
* his casual gaming is made by those facebook games I talked about.
Basically the fact that you still need iTunes to use (and upgrade for example) the iPad means it's not meant to be a computer replacement, but an add-on.
To me, that's the most incredible thing about the iPad and perhaps a factor in its success: the incredible versatility and extensibility you can get from a small flat screen with one button.
But my main intended use would definitely be as a portfolio of my photography. It wouldn't hold a candle to the image quality of my print portfolio, but it would be easier to update it regularly, and to have custom sets for showing different prospective clients.
So even though it's mostly a nifty toy, it does have some potential use. We'll see how well that pans out, I suppose.
I think there are already some apps floating around or in the works that enable tethered photography for studio use, which could be useful also, although I don't do much studio work.