In that case, cell phones aren't a new concept. Its the same as talking to my neighbor, only through this speaker...

Or maybe a car isn't a novel concept. It is, after all, the same as walking somewhere. Only slower.

Or even a book. Its just another representation of stories that have been told verbally for thousands of years, after all.

Sharing functional similarities in use with something that already exists doesn't mean it isn't a drastic change in how the function is performed.

I think this is a case of Driving, you're doing it wrong ;)

Like, cars are much different than walking because while both are means of getting from one place to another place, the cars is several dozen times faster. That's a huge improvement in the "getting somewhere" field.

The same with cell phones. Cell phones are a huge boon because they allow you to call people almost anywhere. They eliminated the need for a hard telephone line, meaning you can now use your phone in thousands of places where you couldn't use a phone before, at least not without paying.

Now, what major game-changing feature does the iPad enable? Nothing, really. All of the major iPad apps could be performed on a laptop just as well. The touching might make the interface more humane, but it doesn't create such a universally, obviously superior thing. The fact that it's made for couch is nice, and nicer for couch computing than a laptop because of the design of its hardware, but it doesn't enable anything that wasn't possible before.

Some people might like or want an iPad, which is all fine, but it's not a major or revolutionary improvement like buggy -> car that made so many things possible that were impossible before. Like, before cars, it would take weeks or months to go from, say, St. Louis to Denver. With cars, you could make that trip in a few days or less. That's a huge, major, revolutionary improvement. Now, what thing does iPad provide that is similar to that?

Bingo. This is exactly it. it makes things more humane. Easier. You don't have to worry about where you saved that file to. There's no accidentally deleting a folder that had an important document among a dozens of useless files.

You don't need to use a clunky device to click on something. You use your finger and you push the screen. Which a lot of people do anyway, to point to something on their screen. Only, it doesn't do anything for them yet.