So Steve Jobs announced the new Apple iPad yesterday, essentially adding an iPod Touch XL to the product set.

As you may judge from the last sentence I’m a bit ambivalent at this stage. My friend Stewart put it well with his comment, “what’s it for?”

Reaction around the web seems very polarised into ‘I want one/I’m getting one’ and ‘I’m don’t like it/I don’t want one’.

The thing that I’ve noticed is that almost all the people I’ve read wanting haven’t stated what they’ll use it FOR. It doesn’t replace an iPhone (too big, not a phone) or a laptop (less connectivity, less disk space) so it needs to have a different function.

I think the most surprising ommission is the lack of stylus/drawing package. This could have revolutionised the artist world in a similar way to PageMaker back in the day.

At the moment, and admittedly without seeing or trying one, I’m in the ‘fail’ camp. I can’t see what it would replace in my pantheon of gadgets, or what it would add to the mix.

The real question is, will I have changed my opinion in 12 months time?