Ironically I have a 3 year old and a 8 month old and also an iPad. It's exactly from their use of the iPad, my parent's use of the iPad and my own and my wife

Ironically I have a 3 year old and a 8 month old and also an iPad. It's exactly from their use of the iPad, my parent's use of the iPad and my own and my wife's that I make these observations. Re: form factor - I agree that these things are linked - but I'm saying the touch screen is the killer innovation. Yes, the form factor allows the touch screen to be used comfortably, but people don't really care about the form factor per se. Lack of a keyboard doesn't enable me to flick photos to browse my photo album, or to pinch to zoom on them, or to draw with my fingers on the screen - the touch screen does. A device with a slide out keyboard would do that just as well. It's just that there are significant design challenges in building such a thing so we haven't seen a convincing version of it yet. But we might.