Are you really comparing a Nook to the iPad?

features that someone never uses aren't really a selling point.

such as?

you're the one touting the ipad. whatfeatures does it have that I can't do on a rooted nook?

Facts don't matter. This is a new article of faith for Apple fans. Some Apple commentators still think that all Android phones cost the same as the iPhone because of Apple's magical supply chain. In reality, the competitors are delivering more raw hardware, at a lower price than Apple, mostly via building from generic, mass-produced, commodity parts. Clearly the same is true in tablets.

Ironically Apple's true advantage, that it can deliver a better end-user experience per unit of hardware power, by clever holistic hardware/software/product/ecosystem design is pretty much the opposite of this new theory, and Apple increasingly finds itself in a tech arms race that it doesn't want to be in. It wouldn't surpise me if Apple conceded the high-end hardware in both tablets and phones this year to better pad its margins on devices that are expensive yet middling in raw power, instead focussing on user experience issues like battery life.

This. I call bullshit as well, apple didn't invent a new market; they used fantastic marketing and took advantage of a gigantic fanboy base.