I still do not see the too many compelling usecases when comparing a tablet with a smartphone + netbook/ultra leight weight laptop.
Hence the hugh success of the Ipad is in my opinion not much a result of its advanced features or even its slick design but rather its clever position as a must have status symbol.
But I know I'm also not a typical user.
the pain of fielding 10000 hp tablet pcs globally suddenly goes away. for a cheaper device, that is lighter, faster, sturdier, with great battery life. with a stable, consistent OS environment below it. no more OS images, driver fuckups, etc etc etc.
the iPad will destroy headcounts in enterprise IT just like Exchange did in the realm of secretaries.
We been dealing with mobile users for decades and it's a small percentage of our staff/budget that actually deals with in-field devices and issues. iPads and smart phones are nice, but the sales force and folks at remote sites find themselves more productive with a laptop that has a keyboard and the ability to run "true applications".
As for HP, it hasn't been the HP of lore in decades.
combining crm and clm on the ipad rocks the world of the sales reps out there. no more paper. digital signatures on a slim device.
i saw the hordes of IT needed to manage the windows tablets out there, maintaining windows SMS servers or some 3rd party solutions, then also patching and updating all that other "true apps". noticed that apple solved that through the app store, once and for all?
servers are getting killed by SaaS, notebooks by the iPad. SAP has fielded 17000 iPads internally...