Don't get me wrong, I still don't think the iPad is the device that will bring eBooks to a level comparative to MP3 consumption today. It's quite high priced when thinking about a dedicated book reader. But that's also where most other products fail. The Kindle (especially the DX) is much too high in price for what it does.

I still think there's room for a dedicated eBook reader product, but IMO, it had better be significantly lower than $100 and offer much better performance than we've seen so far. The Barnes & Noble product would be quite a good contender at $99.

The iPad seems as though it's off to a very good start and I believe once some reviewers and press start making stronger use cases for it, it's going to really bloom. By default, a lot of written material is going to be consumed with them. his will affect the sales of current e-reader products the same way the pretty much every iPod still trounced sales of much lower priced "competitors."

The main reason I'd like to get one for my mom is to simplify her computer use. Everything she does, apart from printing an odd document, can be done with an iPad. Having only a single app open at one time and never getting lost with multiple windows within an app will also help her a great deal I think. The gamble is that if it's not going to work, I'm stuck with it....