"As you might expect, the top three things consumers have been doing with iPads are surfing the web, writing and checking e-mail and playing games"
That sounds like the same thing people are doing with desktop computers and laptops.
The microwave-to-oven analogy doesn't make much sense. Do you think most people are sitting beside their desktop/laptop while they use their iPad/tablet? I love my iPad, but I will surely use my desktop when I can choose between the two.
So, if I'm time-constrained, you're thinking I'm going to type that email on my iPad? Again, this is a bad analogy. I think people really do need tablets. They just don't need them when their desktop/laptop is in reach.
The preference for the microwave is only when you're time-constrained. Otherwise the oven is preferable because of the tastier results it produces.
In that same way an iPad adds convenience at the expense of ability. You can carry an iPad places you don't want to carry a desktop or laptop but it can't do as much as those devices.
Though all of this is beside the point because your original comment treated the statement "no one needs" as if he were saying "there's no value in" when in fact that wasn't what he was saying at all.
And that isn't what I was saying either. Some people really do need a portable device like an iPad. However, as this article points out in its many examples, the average person does not need one.
Perhaps this article should be retitled to "The average person does not need a tablet".