Mohtalim

Tech & Media Exec (who needs to remain anonymous)

1) The product as shown today will NOT be the bulk of iPad sales in five years. Apple constantly upgrades its product line and adds more features and / or lowers price (compare the original iPhone three years ago with the current 3GS). With 4G, more storage (128GB), video conferencing and tailored applications this product may dominate the way many leading edge consumers (youth, student, urban) interact with media and each other. MSFT and the CE (Sony, Dell, etc.) community should be very afraid.

2) Products like this will not only accelerate the shift of people away from the cable providers video services (with iTunes), but will move them from non-wireless broadband at home (with AT&T and VZ picking up the slack), since it will be easy for those telcos to bundle HS data plans with this device at point-of-sale.

3) Amazon and other retail stores have already felt Apple's presence in music and video. They may may huge inroads into the book market (esp. if textbook providers push this), which could alter those companies growth plans

4) This could take multimedia social networking to the next level (once it gets video conferencing, etc.). The key is to view Apple's devices as platform / category plays, rather than one-offs. No one thought that third-party apps would become a daily part of our lives with the orginal 2G iPhone launch. I can't wait to see what devs do with this in a few years, when the third rev of this device is out.

All in all, today may have been a let-down with all the hype, but this will be a pretty big deal in a few years.

Footnote #1: I’m using Mac as a stand-in for all PCs;