Welcome to the iPad

In case you haven't heard, Apple announced its latest toy this week called the iPad. This device is 1/2 inch think and weighs 1 1/2 pounds. It has a 9.7 inch touch screen that works just like the iPhone.

After quite a lot of buildup and secrecy over this announcement, many people seemed to be disappointed over this new device from what I can tell. A lot of people are calling it a larger version of the iPod Touch.

I'm not so sure that this isn't another home run for Apple. The real success of Apple's turnaround years ago was the iPod. I can remember when I got my first iPod back in 2004 and was so blown away that I could put all of my music (which is a lot) on this one little device. It seemed like within a year all my friends had one and even the Baby Boomer generation started hopping on board!

Not long after the iPod, Apple introduced the iPhone. The iPhone has revolutionized the smart phone industry and created an entirely new industry with iPhone application software that never even existed before.

I sense the iPad is going to be more successful than many people think. Although there are already other devices out there such as Netbooks and Amazon's Kindle Book Reader, none of them have the captive audience that Apple has.

I think the real question will be can this product become another essential toy that we can't live without like our iPods and iPhones. Only time will tell.