[This started out as a response to my buddy James' email to me saying that he wasn't that blown away by the iPad. Somewhere in the middle of responding, I realized that I needed to post it as a follow-up post on my blog, so that's why it sounds like a blog post. Also, I've added a new first paragraph about which model I will buy.]

So, which model am I going to buy? Probably the 16GB version without 3G for the basic $499. Why? 16GB is enough for me and what I will use a device like this for. My iPhone 2G that I love is still only 8GB, and it’s more than enough memory for me. Also, I really don’t need the 3G here in Vietnam – see below. But probably the main reason is because I am well aware that this is just Version 1.0 of what will undoubtedly be a multi-version product, and I don’t want to invest so much in Version 1.0 that I feel disinclined to buy Version 2.0 or 3.0 or whatever version becomes compelling enough to make me upgrade. (Although since I’ve held onto my old 2G iPhone for more than 2 years and am still very happy with it, who knows.) And also, “Version 2.0″ may not even be made by Apple. What? Yes, I know that V2.0 of the actual iPad will be made by Apple, but competitors will also take Apple’s iPad and use it as a kind of reference model – just like they’ve done with the iPhone. Apple’s set the bar, and now the competitors will be falling over themselves trying to meet or exceed it. They’ve upped the ante for Google, the netbook manufacturers, and everyone else whose been rumored to be developing tablets. Which is exactly why that demo of HP’s new Windows-based tablet looks so absolutely ridiculous in light of the iPad’s release. (And I would be a lot of money that that HP tablet cost more than $499 – or at least it did before the iPad announcement.)

I wasn’t totally blown away until he said the price. And I’m coming at it from someone who really wants/needs and ereader. If this thing had not come out, I would have happily bought the Kindle or one of the other ereaders coming out soon. But people were speculating this thing would be $800 or $1000 minimum. $499 is just crazy. I also love the fact that it can be used with a bluetooth keyboard – that means you can do real work on the thing if you ever need to. (Not that you’d want it as your primary computer, however.) Also, this is only Day Zero for this thing. Where it really gets interesting is when third-party developers start coming out with new apps custom-developed for the iPad (i.e., not just the iPhone apps playing on the iPad). And when the hackers crack the thing. Incidentally, I thought the iPhone apps playing on the iPad in a little window was kind of cheesy looking – and really, it is – but then I realized that the reason they did that is because that means this thing can run 100,000+ apps right out of the box. They don’t have to wait for all of the developers to port their apps to the iPad natively (although I bet most will).

Disappointments:

(1) No multitasking. You can’t open up a music app and have it playing in the background while you type a document, browse the web, etc. That is ridiculously stupid and I am 99.9% confident that will be addressed quickly in a software update (if not by the time the thing ships). It really just makes absolutely no sense for a “lifestyle device” like this.

(2) No camera (and no front-facing camera for videoconferencing). Realistically, I don’t know how often I would use the camera in a bigger device like this – it’s not like an iPhone where you can whip the thing out of your pocket and take a quick photo or video with it. But it still seems like it would have been a good idea to have at least one camera – if not two for videoconferencing. One would have at least allowed you to use apps such as those for the iPhone that require a camera. And videoconferencing would have been very cool. Probably in Version 2.0 or a business iPad somewhere down the road. And, hey, it’s $499. Adding a camera or two would have pushed that up.

(3) Design. I think it looks pretty cool – and I’m sure holding one in your hand it will look and feel great, but the design of it doesn’t absolutely blow me away. The edges look a little more hard and angular than I would have imagined. I would have thought it would have been a little more rounded and organic. I’m not sure why I would have thought that, but it just surprised me that it looks as much like the unibody Macbook design as it does the iPhone 3G.

(4) Name. I’m being a little particular here, because really who cares what the name is, but I think iPad is kind of the easy, not ideal choice. It’s easy to confuse with iPod – especially when written. It’s not very creative. It just doesn’t feel very inspired. Of course what the hell was inspiring about iPod back when it was introduced in 2001? I think they could have done better – although I’m not sure what the name should have been. I never liked iSlate. I never really liked iTablet but even that might have been better than just iPad. I guess I just thought Apple would come out with something a little bit cooler than iPad.

(5) 3G. I guess it makes sense that you have to pay more for 3G, and it’s not that big a deal to me because 3G is just getting off of the ground here in Vietnam and so not all that useful anyway, but if I was in the US, having to pay an extra $130 to have the 3G radio in the thing would disapppoint me a little – although the $29.99 for unlimited data sounds like a pretty good deal. (The 250 megabyte for $14.99 deal is a joke. When he said “megabytes” I seriously thought he was making a mistake and it should have been “gigabytes.” 250 megabytes? I probably burn through more than that every single day.

(6) No SD card reader. It would have been cool to have been able to pop your SD card out of your camera and pop it into your iPad to review photos, etc. And it would have also been awesome to have been able to pop an extra few GBs of memory into the thing using an 8GB or 16GB memory card, etc. I understand why Apple wouldn’t want you to be able to do that, but still, it would have been cool.