With the launch of the iPad, many people were disappointed.  They wanted something more.  They wanted a front-facing camera with video chat, or USB ports, or the ability to make phone calls, or ... the list goes on and on.  Here's the thing, the iPad is revolutionary because of its package.  Sure it's a big iPod Touch, that's the whole point.  The revolution is in its size.

When the iPhone and iPod Touch debuted, they revolutionized what a portable device could do.  They were literally take-anywhere computers that you could customize, through apps.  Now I had a device in my pocket that not only took phone calls, read email, and took pictures, but one that allowed me to turn it into a police scanner, a radio station, a gameboy;  whatever I wanted.  Apps were built for all kinds of use cases.

The problem with portability though is size.  On one extreme, you want something that fits in your pocket, that you can take anywhere, unnoticed.  A device that's great for getting by while on-the-run.  Sure you could read a book on it, but would you?  No, the screen is too small.  At the other end of the spectrum is the laptop.  It allows you to do extended-session computing where you might need to read a long document or type a lot.  Sure laptops are portable, but how portable is relative.

With the launch of the iPad, Apple is giving people a device that is small enough to be portable in your personal environment.  Everyone knows how relatively bulky laptops are when you jump from your chair to a couch, to a meeting.  The iPad is going to make those transitions that much more enjoyable.  It can be with you wherever you go in your personal environment.

There are a whole slew of professions that would benefit greatly from this type of portability.  Librarians, waitresses, police, almost anyone in the service industry who are on their feet and need to access or input information.  The iPhone is too small for many scenarios, the laptop too bulky.  The iPad is perfect for these situations and will outperform many people's expectations.

The latest release of the iPhone SDK enables app developers to add VoIP functionality to their apps.  This is great news and I'm happy to see Apple allowing it.  AT&T would love to continue to charge us for "voice minutes" and then tack on "data fees" on top of that.  But it's an antiquated billing scheme that needs to change.

The majority of your cell phone bill consists of the "voice plan" you're in.  You have 500 minutes or 1000 minutes of talk time each month and are billed accordingly.  If you have an iPhone or BlackBerry, you are also charged a "data plan" to account for your web activities.  Why?  Voice is data, but it isn't nearly as much data as streaming YouTube videos or browsing image-heavy websites.

Why are cell phones still dedicating voice circuits to calls?  What a waste of bandwidth.  Every cell phone should use VoIP when handling calls.  Every cell phone user has experienced "drop calls" before.  There's no need.  In a VoIP world, you just experience quality loss, but your call continues.  It's much better than having to call someone back.

Cell phone companies need to revise their billing schemes and throw "voice minutes" completely out the window.  I should get a cell phone bill each month that says, "You used 240MB of data."  That's it.  And it should no longer be called a cell phone bill, but a mobile Internet bill.

Walt Mossberg gets time with Steve.  Fast forward to about 1:55.

You have to love Walt.  He seems like a genuinely good guy and I like his columns.  I don't agree however with one point he makes in this video.  He says that Apple is going to have a tough time proving that there is a market for something that won't fit in your pocket, and yet isn't a "full computer".

I think there is a strong market for these types of devices though.  Doing trivial things like browsing the web, replying to emails, checking social sites, etc. is all "weak computing".  You don't need a full computer to carry out these tasks; in fact, it's overkill.  And it's these simple kinds of activities that we want to do when we're sitting in front of the TV, or sipping a cup of coffee at a local coffee shop.

No you're not going to pull out Call of Duty on the iPad, but it is great for other gaming where you want to kill some time.  The game quality and experience on the iPhone has blown us away.  No one thought you could get such a great experience out of a device so small.  But Apple made it happen through phenomenal software and hardware engineering.

I'm looking forward to getting an iPad.  The question is, do I wait for the 3G model?