In utterly unrelated news, it is kind of just a little disappointing that the only serious rival for iPad 2 is the iPad 1.
One would have expected that the competitors would have a vaguely similar object to the iPad actually in stock before iPad 2 came out. It must be lonely to only compete against yourself.
(HTC Flyer looks good, possibly Xoom as well, and the new Galaxy. But they are not here. And even the old Galaxy Tab, half pad and half mobile phone, cost far more than the iPad. To steal a phrase from a friend, at that price you should be able to ride them.)
Not that it is a big deal to me. But they could have avoided being caught with their pants down if they had read the Chaos Node back in the year 2000, when I announced 2010 as the year of the Datapad. Of course, the datapad I envisioned was more similar to the smartphone than the iPad, which I still think is too big to bring with you unless you aim to show off. And I still think the iPad is too big to be the winner in the long run. It is mostly suited for the couch, and there you are probably watching your big flat-screen TV most of the time anyway. Â (Not that I have a TV, but then again I don’t have an iPad either.)
So I still consider iPad mostly a way to show off that you are avantgarde. But unfortunately, it is also still true.