The computer industry is gigantic. It's nearly impossible to talk about its entirety in broad strokes. Even if you don't work in the technology industry lots of

The computer industry is gigantic. It's nearly impossible to talk about its entirety in broad strokes. Even if you don't work in the technology industry lots of people carry laptops around for various reasons. It's a little presumptuous to think their needs are always so easy to meet. So right off the bat we need to exclude most computers used for business or most professional users in general. We also need to exclude hardcore geeks and power users. My guess is that leaves you with about half the market for laptop computers. Basically the people who are buying net books today. That's the market where the iPad is going to have the most impact. I think Apple hasn't been oblivious to the rise of net books in the computer market. They see the potential market for something less than a full blown computer, smaller and lighter, better battery life, more fun to use and most importantly more task oriented instead of a general purpose device. For those people the iPad is going to be fantastic. For the first 50%, the geeks/professionals, the iPad might have some appeal as an accessory but it's not going to change much. So going back to the original premise that the world wide computer industry is gigantic the iPad, and other tablets modeled closely after it, are a fragmentation of this massive industry into more logical segments. We're long overdue to recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all. The needs of the geeky power user are massively different than the needs of a person who wants to read an e-book or webpage on their couch. They'll happily co-exist together.