Everyone is bagging the iPad for not having a camera, GPS or other "basic" hardware features - including me. I've had some time to think about it- and I'm recanting my disappointment.

What needs to be understood is that a shopping list of hardware components is not what Apple products are about. When talking about the iPod, Apple makes sure to tell you that it can hold 2,000 songs in addition to the fact that it's a 8 GB iPod - the song information is more useful to the average user.

Likewise, the lack of camera and GPS are not the important points for a consumer- it's that they can buy lots of books off a shelf and flip through them, page by page- just like a paper book. Expect the iPad to be marketed as "Can hold 10,000 books!"

It's the practical user experience and utility to the average person that Apple cares about- and this is why they succeed.