In form, the iPad is very much what Tablet users have been wanting for a long time. It is ultra-thin at just 1.3 cm thick, and weighs around 700 grams – about the same as the weight as the Viliv X70 UMPC.

iPad is based on the iPhone OS which will give the device the benefit of simplicity. Imagine the iPad like a large iPod touch with 3G options. There are no voice call capabilities, and there is no webcam. We wonder wether Google talk – famously banned from the iPhone app store for blurring the lines of the Apple / AT&T contract in the US – will be allowed on the iPad.

As long time iPhone users we know that the iPad will lack serious field input capabilities like digitiser driven handwriting recognition – which is now at least twice as fast as virtual keyboard input. That tells us that the device is squarely aimed at content consumption rather than creation.

Essentially, the iPad will make a great colour eBook reader, basic web browser (minus flash content) and email viewer. As we have experienced for many years now with UMPCs and Tablets, these features are hard to live without once you have experienced them.

From early news, some of the groundbreaking features of the iPad are:

• Long battery life – up to 10 hours claimed
• Access to iPhone Apps – Apparently all 140,000 of them
• Simple, sleek, thin and light weight design.
• Crystal clear wide viewing screen – allows up to 178 degree viewing angles – important for a good Tablet reading experience
• Apples usual smooth multi-touch functionality
• Great line of accessories including an attachable physical keyboard and protective portfolio case.

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On early details, there is still some work to be done to bring this device to the masses:

• On screen keyboard – Great auto correction, but frustrating to navigate to symbols and features that you would find on a normal keyboard. It appears that apple have stuck very closely to the iPhone Virtual Keyboard design Microsoft do this well in the Tablet Input Panel with quick access to localised common typing commands like .com and .au.
• Glossy screen – Judging by the video the screen is very reflective and glossy which makes viewing difficult, particularly in common business environments like fluoro lighting and outdoors.
• Oddly in a world awash with widescreen, the iPad has a standard aspect 4:3 screen with 1024×768 resolution.
• No webcam.
• No stylus, note taking or handwriting input – A pressure sensitive digitiser is more accurate and handwriting is about twice as fast as virtual keyboard input. Note taking is what makes a Tablet most useful and this is missing on the iPad.
• No ruggedness ratings – One thing we know for sure is that even Tablets used purely at home take much more of beating over time than a laptop does. We have seen countless broken screens and peripherals. Although the device does include solid state storage, a serious field Tablet needs to be rugged to last.
• Limited storage – storage is from 16Gb – 64Gb depending on model selected. Great for basics, but more storage is often needed.
• No freedom – one of the biggest drawbacks of the iPhone OS is the restriction on accessing your own content like video and audio files directly. Everything must be funnelled through iTunes or the App Store, meaning that you can not just plug in your files and go like you can with a windows based Tablet.

Apple Australia’s website carries no mention of the iPad leading us to expect a long delay before we see the device in Australia. Once it does arrive though, well be sure to get one and bring you a hands on review.

The device is rumoured to have a 10 inch screen and inbuilt 3G.

If Apple sticks to the iPhone script, the Apple Tablet PC (Newton II?) is likely to be a fantastic eBook reader, music and movie player, social media and general communications device.

We hope that the release of an Apple Tablet will push innovation in the UMPC space. UMPCs have been held back so far due to the lack of hardware innovation and poor processing performance.

If the rumours are true, Apple has timed its run perfectly because of two technology innovations:

• The massive advancement of the Intel Atom processor (thanks to netbook adoption)
• Capacitive multi-touch screen technology (driven by the success of iPhone)

UMPCs will also be able to leverage these improvements as well as the touch screen improvements of windows 7. We have already seen some very interesting devices this year like the 3G enabled Viliv S5 and X70.

The Asus Eee PC T91 will be upgraded with a multi-touch capacitive screen on the release of windows 7. We are also waiting for the Google Android tablet device announced earlier in the year.

So what is sure is that touch computing is going to get a whole lot better in the next 12 months.

Imagine it as a netbook without a keyboard, and then think of the pocket-friendly convenience that the reduced size of such a device would bring.

The massive netbook trend makes a lot of sense for consumers, but not a lot of sense for the bottom line of notebook manufacturers like HP, Lenovo and Dell. Undoubtedly these devices cannibalise sales of regular notebooks, so while the numbers might be up, the dollar figures are probably down. So for that reason, I think smart companies like Google and Apple will stay away from the netbook space.

On the other hand, a useful 3G mobile slate device with a larger screen than a phone would create a completely new space. It is a space in the market where PCs are not generally used, but full PC power is not necessarily needed.

Google are onto something here, because this is the space where Blackberry, iPhone and Kindle will meet. It could be the computer that you use on the train, plane or couch to:

• Read eBooks, articles and blogs
• Make notes or write articles
• Check and send emails
• Browse the web
• Buy tickets
• Find a restaurant
• Research a purchase
• Get directions
• Watch movies and videos without conversion.

UMPCs or MIDs are only inches away from this, but even with a host of devices released at CeBIT 2009 there still isn’t a real contender to make a go of this in the Windows camp.

Now to add to the longest running PC rumours in history… the Apple Macbook Tablet.

If you think about it, Apple have produced the most successful slate tablet computer ever already – The iPhone.

With their success in slate computing, and the convergence of netbook hardware and faster 3G networks, the timing might be perfect for Apple to own the UMPC or Mid Tablet PC market as well as the phone market.

Here’s what a related Fast Company article said about the timing of a Mac Tablet PC.

But a larger tablet with a touchscreen keyboard, a 3G radio and running the iPhone OS–why not? Apple has already produced viable touchscreen typing software, and it already has an operating system that is low on power consumption and high on performance. A Mac tablet would improve upon the iPhone by enabling multitasking, a bigger screen, copy-paste, and easier typing, making a portable version of iLife (or an adapted version of Amazon’s new Kindle app for iPhone) a fully-realized possibility. A full version of Safari would mean a complete Web experience, and Apple’s ever-improving battery technology would mean more time on the road. The App Store is ready and waiting for a new generation of full-featured software, and the infrastructure for selling it is in place.

I would add that Apple has a consumer brand, and if you want to sell a consumer product in mind boggling numbers, you need a phenomenal consumer brand attached to it.

If a mid sized Apple Tablet were sold on a cell phone style payment plan we think it would be huge hit with consumers. If it really ever happens, we’ll all be hearing about it.

Maybe it will wake Microsoft and partners up to the fact that you can’t make a device like a Tablet PC or UMPC, hide it under a rug and expect it to sell. Either way we do expect that Microsoft and co will soon be playing catch up with Google, if not Apple as well in the UMPC category.

Current Tablet PC hardware does not support multi-touch in the iPhone sense. There are a number of Tablet PCs that support both Pen and Touch input, but only via one point at a time.

Does multi-touch make you think of scene in the Minority Report with Tom Cruise? An interface like that would have all sorts of un-dreamed of practical applications. Most technically inclined folks are aware of the experiments of the Microsoft Surface team. They have been demonstrating prototypes of this Minority Report style interface for a while now, so we know that this will ultimately become a reality.

The good news is that multi-point/multi-touch will probably reach the Tablet PC before it hits your desktop (or window, or wall for that matter). In fact the video below by a company called JazzMutant is a Tablet PC hardware demonstration on Windows XP that was posted to Youtube last year.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The demonstration uses both Pen and touch input, and it’s quite smart about giving the pen precedence over touch. That will make for an awesome input system.

I would hope that we will see hardware like this on the next generation of Tablet PCs in 12-18 months.