Apple’s new tablet is called the iPad. The breakthrough device is starting at $499, somehow — a price point nobody predicted, although larger memory capacities (up to 64GB) will be more. The base model is 16GB, still a lot of storage until you start downloading video. The pricing points kick up a lot for access to a 3G network-enabled version of the iPad. Add $130 to be able to access data — and that’s books, magazines, video and movies and TV, music — from anywhere you can get a 3G signal (ATT’s, although there’s no contract required.)
The iPad is supposed to start to ship by late April, one month earlier if you want the more less expensive Wi-Fi models without 3G. There’s no camera of any kind, still or video, something of a disappointment. No ability to video-Skype from an iPad, alas. And you won’t be able to do more than one thing at a time, which will keep the Apple notebooks a protected niche in the mobile product lineup. Cue the screaming from the world of multitasking fans. This is a bit of good news for Palm and its Pre — which employs a screen about one tenth the size of the iPad. Of course, that Pre’s a phone, too. The iPad has a built-in microphone, so it could be used for Skype-style calling.
The Apple.com site has extensive technical specs and a sassy sales video. A lot of what this tablet can do is best observed from Apple’s video. Significant strides have been made in display technology (for reading, and sharing the screen), enabled by Apple’s custom-built chip to drive the whole device.
Shots from today’s rollout showed the scale of the tablet as well as the interface:


The device will run “just about every iPhone app unmodified,” so it’s got business applications immediately. More than just Maps or Mail, but also every customized app aimed at niches use like medical reporting or scientific testing. Apple will double the pixels on an app that comes up on the iPad.
When considering that ATT is the only 3G provider here at first release, it might as well be considered a Wi-Fi only device– because the only useful data plan for 3G is $30 monthly. If you already use an iPhone, this will be an extra data charge. On the other hand, you might downgrade your phone away from the iPhone, if you can use the 3G experience in the larger format. The summary:

Apple’s entered the processor derby with this product, a reinforcement of its love of control of the entire offering. The iPad runs on an Apple-built 1GHz chip, the A4. That’s a first; Apple has used chips built by other suppliers in all of its devices up to now.
Apple promises 10 hours of battery life on a charge and a 1-month standby time. That would improve on the standby time of the Kindle — you can’t leave that unattached for a month and expect it to come to life. But 10 hours advertised will be less than that in actual use. Steve Jobs demonstrated the product and said he could fly to Tokyo and watch video the entire time. Good luck on using the product with the Internet for 10 hours. We’d bet that in practice the battery will last probably somewhat more than average iPhone use. But compared to a notebook, and the 10 hours sounds good.
McGraw-Hill has said its textbooks will be available on the iPad, and the New York Times is hoping to sell articles through the iTunes store. The whole paper — rendered as a product you purchase for the iPad — looked like this:

But the motherlode, what’s could give it an edge over Amazon’s Kindle, is the included iBooks software and the iBookstore. Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, Hachette, five of the six biggest publishers, are on board. Here’s a shot via Engadget of iBooks:

Most important to the average business user who’s making a mobile device do the work of a Mac is the iPad’s keyboard. Here’s a shot of the onscreen keyboard at the introduction.

as well as the 10-key pad running below while using Apple’s Numbers application. Numbers and Pages (the iWork apps) will run on the iPad. And Apple says that Numbers and Pages are going to cost just $9.99. This is one of the reasons why Apple bothered to create these competitors to Word and Excel. They can control the price of their users’ tools.

But the best business aspect of this new computing device — and this is unlike anything mobile released for serious business use — is a dock that includes a keyboard. You don’t have to use a virtual keyboard on the screen, if you’re at a desk working.

This device is going to generate more than revenue for the hardware part of the solution. A new Apple iBookstore joins the App Store and the iTunes store. Books are going to be more costly at the iBookstore, at $12.99 to $14.99 — about in line with the Sony eReader titles.

If you own an iPod Touch, this iPad is a book-sized version of that device, sans microphone — but with external input options and 3G capability. Considering the Touch’s cost today, the price of $499-$829 for the iPad looks like it might attract more business users to Apple’s multi-touch interface experience.