Let’s start with this paragraph.
“Apple thinks they have created a go anywhere do anything device that fills the gap between the smartphone and the laptop. I think in reality they failed on both fronts. It is plainly too big to take with you everywhere ”

I had had hopes for a 7 inch iTouch with a screen at 220 DPI about the size of a slim paperback book. The reason that I discounted the rumors about a 10 inch tablet was that I thought it was too large and clumsy.

But, I really won’t know until I get my hands on an iPad, if it is too large for common usage, and nether will you. The iPad is clipboard sized and plenty of those get sold and used. It seems the right size for the young, the old and the technically challenged.

“and between the lack of multitasking,”

You are in error on this. The iPhone, the iTouch and the iPad all multitask; it is merely that Apple reserves multitasking for its own software.

What you are complaining about is that Apple prevents third party apps from multitasking. This may be a miscalculation on Apple’s part, but given the fact that the vast majority of users are not geeks, it might not be. Every person who complains about this issue is a geek, and the iPad and iTouch are not designed for them. If this is truly a technical matter, then improved hardware will remove the ban.

” the lack of a fully functioning browser ”

I am assuming that you are talking about the Flash plugin. I see this as a transitory matter. HTML 5, in a few years, will have improved to the point that Adobe’s Flash will become history. It cannot be soon enough for me. I have blocked Flash from Safari; Viewing the Web without it is more enjoyable and less distracting. I have fewer webpages going screwy on me, too.

“and the lack of a convenient one handed input method”

I can’t see the majority of iPad users wanting this. I’ve been using computers since the late 60s and don’t want it. Doug Engelbart was using a one handed Chording keyboard for one of his first experiments with Arpanet back in the middle 60′s. Talk about geeky.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart

” there are too many compromises for this to even really replace one of the newer generation netbooks.”

It is just as well that the iPad is not designed to replace the netbook.

It is a new category of devices for people who hate or fear computers. Over 50% of Americans do not use computers now. Many of them believe that computers are too hard or technical to use; the iPad is for them.

These are not dumb people; their brains merely work in a different way. The iPad is bound to be a success, because there are hundreds of millions of them.

The CrunchPad was a web viewing device for Geeks. There are too few of them to create a marketplace. Also, they are notoriously cheap and fussy.

Next, let us consider the iPad’s price. It is not too high. The market which the iPad is designed for will find the price acceptable.

I also expect the price to drop within about six months to spur sales, like it did for the iPhone. Apple has R&D cost which it must recoup. And when enough iPads are sold the price of the components will drop.

The A4 chip will be updated to have the ARM Cortex A9 processor installed, instead of the Cortex A8. This will allow the iPad to have a faster chip which has more cores, at a lower power usage AND a lower price point.

This is Standard Operating Procedure for Apple. It’s prices for new products start off moderately high until the market has determined the price point. Then it improves features while keeping the price the same.

A general price inflation of 2 to 3 percent annually tends to lower the relative price of Apple products over time. But, high price inflation should to expected in the coming year due to the unfunded stimulus packages and budget deficits. Apple has good reason to be financially conservative here, since they don’t know how high the inflation will be. This will affects the value of the dollar which, in turn, determines the component costs. The overseas vendor markets could go screwy for a while.

“I see a few problems on the horizon for the Apple CrunchPad (I’ll get into the others later today), but on the couchputing front I think the biggest issue they face is that within the next 3-4 months there will be a number of Android or Chrome tablets hitting the market that can do enough of what the iPad manages to do well only for about $250-$350.”

I believe that the competitors for the iPad will be failures, just as they have been for the iPhone. Partly, this is economics. An android replacement for the iPhone actually costs $10 more for the components than the iPhone.

Apple has great purchasing power, so it can get better deals than its competitors. Also, none of the android phones, or iPad replacements, will be superior enough to be competitive, since the full range of services offered by the iPhone, and the iPad, will be missing.

The next reason for the failure of the iPad competition is that the competition will get the market wrong. They will include features which are important to geeks. The geekiness and ugliness of the iPad’s competition will turn off the iPad’s customer base.

Apple’s ease of usability is going to be the factor that really carries this device over the top and will prove to be the piece of the puzzle that the other tablet makers really have to worry about with their competing products. Companies will release tablets that are cheaper than Apple’s tablets and will possess features that Apple has notably left out of the iPad, but if they can’t at least come close to that “it just works” OS that Apple has designed they are going to have real problems.