The iPad revolutionized the market in its own fashion with it’s anticipated launch few months ago. I saw a lot of criticism, disappointment, delight, and a whole lot of other mixed reviews for the device. I watched the keynote speech online on the launch day and to tell you the truth I was disappointed too, to see a giant iPod touch as an “in between” product between a Macbook and an iPhone.

So couple of weeks ago post its store launch, I went down to the closest apple store here in Boston. I was amazed at the number of people in the store getting their hands on one of these and playing around. I spent about 45 minutes in the store with the iPad, trying every application, games etc to get a feel of what the product is like, is it really worth it, is it that powerful enough to replace a netbook? So here is my personal review of the iPad…

Whats Good

• The best thing about the iPad is the iBooks app! I’ve seen the Kindle, I’ve seen Nook and the Sony eReader. iBooks is the winner! Its functionality, UI, just the way it works is brilliant. Though I’m not a big fan of eBooks myself, since I like the feel of paper.
• Web Surfing is really awesome on the iPad
• Checking your email (just checking)

Whats NOT

• Glossy screen – its one complain that I have for my macbook too, the matte screens were so much better!
• Its difficult to hold it in one hand and work with it, in short its a little too big!
• Typing is not fun, though its intuitive which in technical terms is very impressive. However, your fingers tend to slip from the screen, if you want to type the usual way in the landscape mode. It worked well with the iPhone and the iPod Touch, since god created man with opposable thumbs!
• For a so called “netbook” killer, it has no USB ports, no memory card slots etc.

I recently came across Robert Scoble’s post on how Apple sold more iPads than they predicted and why they got their prediction wrong. The Apps make the product so much better, and there are killer apps for the iPad out there! It wasn’t a surprise to see Amazon’s Kindle app hitting iTunes store either! Justifying the blood, sweat and tears they’ve put in to digitize so many titles, its only fair!

It will be interesting to see what kind of consumers are buying this product. Whether offering it to new students at university is a good idea or not….or there will be more elderly citizens like the 99 year old lady with the ipad, we will have to wait and watch!