Kindle DX 9.7” – $489.00
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1024×768 color display upgrade – $1.00
Internet browsing upgrade – $1.00
iPod w/16GB upgrade – $1.00
Run iPhone apps upgrade – $1.00
1Gz A4 processor upgrade – $1.00
H.264 720P HD video upgrade – $1.00
Bluetooth upgrade – $1.00
10hr battery upgrade – $1.00
Multi-touch display upgrade – $1.00
Digital compass/accelerometer – $1.00 
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Your cost: iPad $499.00

from Kevin Rose’s blog
http://www.kevinrose.com

By making the product is as marketable as possible, Apple will position the iPad ahead of all technological competitors including Amazon’s Kindle. Then iPad can replace the Kindle in the Kindle’s space, especially if, more college text books are published in electronic form at a cheaper cost and price than paper and cardboard.

Great inputs and analysis folks! The question is can the “sizzle” and Apple marketing acumen carry the day on a product that may have deficiencies? It will be interesting to see. I really appreciate your contributions. I always seem to get the best commentary when I cover mobility technology and trends. Maybe I need to do it a bit more, eh?

Jeff

As for the ebook reader debate, I’ve read on netbooks and on my iPhone, my eink is so much better. You really don’t realize how much better until you try one. To buy this as a dedicated ereader doesn’t make sense, but I guess if you want an overall media device, it would be good enough.

I can see this working for texts and journal articles, but not at that price (textbooks are not going to decrease in price that much. You’re paying for content with textbooks, not paper. McGraw-Hill has said as much). Newspapers it would work for…but is that enough for the general consumer to pick one up? I guess time will tell.

Something I do think is positive is that they have a $30 data plan, no contracts. That’s an easy way for people who don’t think they need a cell phone (or have a pre-paid phone) to get a data plan. I can see that being a positive for some. I can have mobile internet for just $30, no contracts (granted, it only works on 3G and that is spotty in some areas, but it’s a nice idea).

I really like your thoughts relative to vertical industry and education applications. I just wonder if the iPad will be robost enough for some of those environments. I do completely agree that good applications can carry the day for a device even if the device is in my view a “tweener”.

Thanks for your contribution to the debate and I look forward to you rolling out some killer apps for the iPhone and now the iPad.

Jeff

Personally I see this platform as an opportunity for innovation. Lets face it, even though the iPhone and iPod can programmatically deal with things like inventory management, medical records, or IT administration, that does not mean that form factor is the appropriate input system or display. The iPad fills that gap quite nicely for those niche markets.

I also think that a lot of people missed the slight of hand when it came to the Apple iBooks store. Just imagine a collegiate environment: 3 books for classes can easily cost well over $500, Apple stated that they have already 5 of the major publishers for ALL of their books published. Additionally they posed that the books would be on average around $15. This is not to mention the fact that this can potentially skip the traditional distribution channels; in turn skipping over the publisher and allowing a professor that has their own books to be published on the Apple iBooks Store.

So adoption of the device definitely could be there, in businesses, education, and consumers. All that has to be done now is build the right products to make the platform come to its full potential.