When I’m out and about, I use my iPhone; when I’m at home, I use my MacBook. In short, I have no need for a device such as the iPad – it’s not portable or powerful enough to replace my laptop when I’m at a conference, nor is it small enough to slip in to my handbag to use on the Tube. To me, the iPad is just a big iPod touch – beautifully designed and supremely easy to use, but I feel I’ve got all my bases covered with my existing range of gadgets. Intriguingly, the people who seem most taken by the iPad are not hard-core techies, but rather casual gadget fans who want a “living room computer” that they can use to check emails or buy songs without having to trek in to the home office and power up the desktop computer every time.(ibm thinkpad t41 battery)

The war of words between Adobe and Apple has been well documented, but regardless of whether or not you believe Flash is buggy and prone to crashing, the fact remains that it is used by scores of websites for videos and animations. And on a device that aims to allow you to surf the whole of the internet, the fact that many web pages will be rendered, at best, incomplete, at worst, unviewable, means that the iPad browsing experience is currently not a happy one.(thinkpad t30 battery)

Sales of Android-based handsets have already overtaken those of Apple’s iPhone, and there’s every sign that Android could find a home on netbooks and tablet computers, too. Lots of companies, including Dell, are making devices that use Google’s open source OS, and it will be interesting to see whether they can come up with a tablet to rival the iPad.

As per usual, British consumers will pay more than those in the United States for the same product – although Apple says that once VAT is taken in to account, UK shoppers will only be paying around 2.5 per cent more than those in the US. My issue with pricing is more about how much “bang” you get for your buck. At £429, the entry-level iPad is about the same price as a decent netbook computer, but when you take in to account the added extras you will need to transform the iPad in to a truly usable laptop-style computer – such as the iPad keyboard dock, which charges the device while transforming it in to a monitor and keyboard – the cost soon begins to mount up. A good netbook can do more than the iPad and costs less, and as such will probably be better suited to the needs of most consumers.(ibm thinkpad 600x laptop battery)

The iPad’s biggest selling points are its generous screen size and internet connectivity, so it seems a shame that Apple has chosen not to include a camera on its first-generation device; it’s ideally suited to Skype video conversations, or the iChat messenger service. There’s evidence that Apple plans to include a camera in future versions of the device, so it might be worth to hold on until then if you want a device with an integrated webcam.

Don’t get me wrong, the iPad looks lovely – all sleek lines and tight curves. But how do you use the thing? Do you rest it in the crook of your arm and type with the other hand? Do you rest it on a surface and peer down on it from above? Do you try and prop it up against something, or rest it in its dock? The iPad is too big to be truly portable but slightly too small to be truly usable.

OK, so this is going to be fixed in the iPhone OS 4.0 software update later this summer – but for now, the iPad remains a strictly one-task-at-a-time gadget. Those hoping for a computer-like experience will be disappointed – you can’t write an email while having an instant-messaging conversation with a friend, or listen to your Spotify playlists while working on a Keynote presentation, or follow a trending topic on Twitter while noodling around the web.

In the weeks before the iPad was officially unveiled, rumours swirled that the touch-screen tablet would be a game-changing device that would redefine the way we consume newspapers and magazines. So far, it perhaps hasn’t proved to be the seismic shift many people were hoping for. Lots of newspapers, including the Guardian and Wall Street Journal, have launch iPad-optimised apps, but they’re similar in look and feel to the apps already available on the iPhone. It’s early days, admittedly, and I do expect publishers to become more inventive and savvy in the way they repackage and repurpose content for the iPad audience, but there’s no must-have, iPad exclusive app out there yet that makes me want to queue up for the first-generation device on launch day.

The iPad is not a computer in the truest sense of the word – you can’t install additional your own software on it, while the virtual keyboard is not responsive or comfortable enough to use for long periods of time or intense typing sessions, and the memory isn’t big enough to store my music library or photo collection. While the iPad remains a pleasure to use, it is not a business gadget – even if I did own an iPad, it would still be my MacBook or Sony Vaio that came on press trips to do all the heavy lifting.

Only the most rabid and unapologetic gadget fans and early adopters can justify buying the first generation of a new product. By this time next year, Apple is almost certain to have a new iPad on the market, likely with an integrated camera, more storage, and other bells and whistles, while developers will have created a swathe of new apps that really make the best of the iPad’s slick user interface. The second- and third-generation iPads will benefit from better features and functionality, and an ecosystem of software and applications that will transform the computing experience. I’m hanging on to my cash until then.

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