@Raph Goldsworthy – Even as an industrial designer, I personally do not see any desirable element in the itouch/phone/pad products. This is not to say that I can’t see their innovation, I think its more about relevance in my ‘digital’ life. I think your statement is somewhat true, but can be related to any person, designer or not, who is a ‘trend setter’ – There tend to be many trend setters in design.

@ Chris thanks for the ego boost.

@Balin That is true, but industrial designers (in my opinion) are the biggest suckers for having the latest greatest thing because they spend their professional lives trying to be ahead of everyone else, which often translates into their personal lives. Meaning they are quite likely to buy a first gen apple product even though they can clearly see the flaws.

Your story was featured in Undrln! Here is the link to vote it up and promote it: http://undrln.com/All/Why-Apple-s-iPad-looks-like-a-big-iPod-and-other-short-stories...

as someone who probably wouldn’t buy one anyway, i was disappointed with the lack of webcam, multiple tasks simultaneously, and general similarity to the iphone.
my guess would be the product is the least important part of this push by apple, and the most innovation will occur in the way they distribute, collate, manage and retail the e-books, newspapers, blogs etc.
the ipad is just an excuse for them to push up against amazon atm, but in the future there’s the opportunity for our ways of consuming text and video media to be totally changed.