Almost thirty hours since the iPad announcement and still critics are pulling out their guns and shooting at Apple’s latest creation. The overall reaction has been rather negative. What was hotly anticipated has mostly turned into cold soup. So what happened and what has been said?

As I see it the disappointment for most of the critics is that they thought that it would be a Tablet similar to those Tablet PC currently available and capable to fully replace a netbook, laptop and/or desktop. I base this on the list of most often quoted shortcomings:

• No multitasking
• No Adobe Flash
• No camera or iChat capabilities
• No HDMI port
• 4:3 aspect ratio
• Still dependent on AT&T’s 3G service
• Dependence on adapters

… and the list goes on.

Sadly the critics don’t get it, the iPad is not replacing anything, it is a device for a new market, content consumption, not creation. The iPad is a eReader for reading content from news papers, magazines and books. In addition is a video player, music player, web browser and email client.

As I mention in my earlier posting “Are we ready for a Multi-Media Revolution?”, the iPad has the potential to single handedly save publishing industry, the same way the iPod did it for the music business.

Here are a few links to some interesting articles supporting my take on the iPad:

• Are Apple’s iPad Shortcomings Real or Perceived?, by Chris Pirillo
• Jason D. O’Grady’s BBC’s Newshour Interview with James Menendez (4:30)
• The Apple iPad: First Impressions, by David Pogue (NYT)
• First Impressions of the New Apple iPad, by Walter Mossberg (WSJ)
• My Early Impressions of Apple’s iPad & a Quick Hands-on Review, by Om Malik
• Top 10 Reasons The Apple iPad Will Put Amazon’s Kindle Out of Business, by Ben Elowitz (WP)