The excitement for the iPad was on nearly every relevant blog imaginable, months before it ever debuted. People had speculated for years that Apple would be a leader in tablet technology. Every Mac World and Keynote since the rumors started, with the exception of the iPhone, left quite a few people disappointed when no tablet was announced.

Perhaps the bar was set too high for Apple to ever clear. The iPad’s shortcomings have been highlighted far more than it’s features. But what has the iPad accomplished?

For starters, they’ve captured their rabid fan-base once again; even if casual Apple buyers aren’t impressed, the core audience is enough for them to make a profit. And that means second and third generation iPads can’t be too far away, most assuredly with greater features.

Second, they’ve successfully sustained a third niche hardware that companies like HP, IBM, and Toshiba have failed to create. Tablet technology has been around for sometime, but few have been successful. Most surprising, Apple has created this third niche hardware by following the marketing strategy its competitors thought were unique to them – make it cheap.

The iPad is extremely competitive in terms of price, and its diverse user-friendly software makes it more attractive than the HP Slate. Investors apparently agrees, Business Week reported that after the announcement, HP’s stock fell slightly (http://www.businessweek.com).

This third niche hardware is something other than a netbook, it’s even different than an iPhone, despite comparisons. And there in lies the success Apple has created. iPhone sales may drop, especially with Skype claiming to enact 3G calls on the iPad (http://share.skype.com). I even considered dropping my expensive iPhone plan for the higher priced iPad and stand-alone $30 3G service from AT&T. The money I saved from my monthly phone bill would completely pay for the higher priced iPad in just over a year.

But, size matters. While much of emerging technology exists and evolves within The Cloud, we do not. We depend on smartly designed, physical devices in order to access the web in a comfortable fashion. The size of the iPad is too ridiculous for everyday phone calls, which are still essential to serious business professionals, and the display capabilities of the iPhone are too small when given the option of the iPad’s relatively attractive price tag.

The iPad isn’t a netbook, it isn’t a big phone, it’s a content device. At it’s most basic level the iPad is an entertainment machine for adults. At it’s best, a useful tool that can be adapted with cloud-based technology to fit specific business models.

For example, Person A may use their iPad for iTunes movie downloads, interactive games, substantial eReading, and large display web-browsing. Certainly those uses are far more attractive on the iPad than they are on the iPhone. But, as individual users, we’re trained to deal with small display screens. Younger generations especially have no problem with mobile browsing on the phone, perhaps because after years of GameBoy and PSP, the small display has become the status quo.

However, it’s when attempting to interact with others that the real flaws of small-screen, mobile displays are noticed. Photographers can’t show their impressive talents on a screen the size of an iPhone. Most magazines and graphic novels can’t do their print material justice on those screens. Presentations? Forget it. Detailed stock portfolio charts and graphs? No way.

This is where Person B sees opportunity. Be it the photographer, the stock manager, the graphic designer, or the commercial filmmaker – each has a direct need to display their products to potential clients, and the consuming public, at the highest caliber possible.

To get more specific, the professional physical trainer has great need for this third niche hardware. Hence Elevation, the fitness software from Cloudmanic Labs. Think about how useful it will be for these professionals to show their clients the nutritional and fitness information necessary to improve those client’s efficiency, right there on the training floor.

The iPad is an interactive clipboard, one-hundred times more dynamic than a pen and paper.

Finally, Apple has set the bar higher for all their competitors, effectively making tablet technology better for anyone, no matter what device they choose. We already seen evidence of this, not even one month after the iPad announcement.

Norton Ink’s Adam may very well rival the iPad, on almost every level (http://gizmodo.com). With Flash capabilities we’ll mostly likely never see from Apple, that fact alone may be enough to win over some costumers. There are those that would argue Apple wouldn’t gain as much as it would lose from working with Flash, but it still seems to be a point of contention with consumers.

Adam’s 1080p display and longer battery life may sway others as well, and even processing speeds could be an issue; full specs here (http://www.mobilewhack.com).

But, in the end, the real battle will be OS – Android v. Apple. And until everyday users can provide feedback to the market, it’s anyone’s game. Still, the possibilities are exciting, for personal entertainment or professional engagement, tablet’s using cloud-based systems are taking users in bold new directions.