All this is is the author reaffirming his normative value judgments. I could just as easily compare iPad2 unfavorable with my Toshiba netbook...

Price: $230 (with RAM upgrade) vs. $500 Apps: The entire internet and every piece of Windows software vs. 500K apps Features: A keyboard that lets me type emails and chat with people and type posts on Hacker News vs. a virtual keyboard that's good... relative to other virtual keyboards Accessories: Doesn't require accessories to protect it vs. Often used with an expensive case Apps part 2: Excel and Exchange vs. no Excel/Exchange, so that I need another device to respond to work

etc. etc.