But it's a toy whose novelty wears off really quickly, I find. I have one here on my desk, but I haven't used it (apart than to verify the UK's app store is up and running) with any seriousness in around two weeks.
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.)