Nomadz

I used to use Windows mobile, too ( 4 years). I bought every new device that HTC put out until I bought the iPhone 3GS. I also have a laptop and a netbook (mine's from Compaq). Even so, I think the iPad fills a nice niche between the two. For instance, my netbook takes an eternity to start up and it contains a hard drive. Whereas my iPad is instant-on and solid-state (in fact, I dropped it recently and gave it a severe ding but it still works just fine... wouldn't want to do that with my netbook!) The iPad is a really good form-factor for reading newspapers, magazines, periodicals... and for watching movies and television - especially, since you can turn it into either landscape or portrait mode and lock in the best orientation for the content. If you consume a lot of printed and AV materials, it does a better job than my Netbook. As for replacing a laptop, no it doesn't. But, then again, it depends upon what you actually do with your laptop. 90% of the time, I'm just surfing the web, responding to emails, reading RSS feeds and consuming printed/AV stuff. It's a really useful and reliable device. Not without it's problems but, then again, this is first generation.