>So far, I've heard that the principal benefit of the Ipad, or any tablet, is convenient mobility because of light weight. That means that the frequently mobile laptop user can have a lighter load, and the current Iphone user can have a larger screen, as I see it.
>
>I'm neither of them, but that's OK and i'm happy for those people, but is that "seismic?"

Never underestimate convenience! Making something more easily accessible and more universally accesible is always a big winner and I think smart phones and tablets hit that point. The interesting thing to me is why it took this long to get here. I did predict this nearly 10 years ago when I had a one of the first gen shitty 'smartphones' which were terrible to use, but still offered the promise of 'your data anywhere'.

Now we're here and the hardware to realize this is available - it's not likely to go away. How it turns out though and what software platform drives it all - that's still up in the air and is likely to change drastically in the next few years. We're just at the beginning of all this, and while it's exciting I think it'll all shake out for a more common model in the future.

+++ Rick ---