Yes. The entire appeal of the iPad isn't, 'This can do a great many of the things that my computer can already do!' it's, 'This makes it so much more pleasant to do [X] than it is on a computer!'
So every new feature that we see demonstrated isn't just filling in a little bit more of the difference between an iPad and a netbook; it's bringing the experience of the iPad to the tasks and behavior we're looking for.
This is the way that innovation happens, even though a lot of people don't realize it. They're stuck in the old mode of innovation, the King's Quest VI mode. The first time I saw a CGI video playing off a CD-ROM I was blown away by the capabilities of computers. By now I know what computers can do, and I have seen enough CGI video to be pretty well-convinced that anything I want can be rendered by it. Likewise, we have enough technologies at our disposal right now that we could spend a long, long time improving the software that we use simply by designing better interfaces for it. If you wait around for an entirely new technology—something that isn't possible on your laptop, like Star Wars-style holograms—you're gonna miss several boats.
To put it more directly: there's surely some people who have already ordered the iPad who will be thinking, 'Oh, nice. There's another thing I can use it for.' But the story here is the many, many more people who are thinking, 'I love Netflix/Hulu/[whatever pre-existing service will be replicated next week], and if I could use it on a magic ultra-light wireless multi-touch slate, I'd buy one in a fucking second.'
So every new feature that we see demonstrated isn't just filling in a little bit more of the difference between an iPad and a netbook; it's bringing the experience of the iPad to the tasks and behavior we're looking for.
This is the way that innovation happens, even though a lot of people don't realize it. They're stuck in the old mode of innovation, the King's Quest VI mode. The first time I saw a CGI video playing off a CD-ROM I was blown away by the capabilities of computers. By now I know what computers can do, and I have seen enough CGI video to be pretty well-convinced that anything I want can be rendered by it. Likewise, we have enough technologies at our disposal right now that we could spend a long, long time improving the software that we use simply by designing better interfaces for it. If you wait around for an entirely new technology—something that isn't possible on your laptop, like Star Wars-style holograms—you're gonna miss several boats.
To put it more directly: there's surely some people who have already ordered the iPad who will be thinking, 'Oh, nice. There's another thing I can use it for.' But the story here is the many, many more people who are thinking, 'I love Netflix/Hulu/[whatever pre-existing service will be replicated next week], and if I could use it on a magic ultra-light wireless multi-touch slate, I'd buy one in a fucking second.'