“We are the most focused company that I know of or have read of or have any knowledge of. We say no to good ideas every day. We say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small in number so that we can put enormous energy behind the ones we do choose. The table each of you are sitting at today, you could probably put every product on it that Apple makes, yet Apple’s revenue last year was $40 billion. I think any other company that could say that is an oil company.”

I’ve held off writing this post because the subject has been covered (beaten to death?) so well elsewhere. So in homage to those voices (and laziness), I’ve copy and pasted the key points into some sort of a cohesive logical position. If even the cliff notes version is too much to read, I’ll summarize it further with this:

The iPad is a new type of device, that belongs in an entirely new market of simple, casual, lifestyle computing. The benefits of this new technology are profound, and the market for them will be large, but its not a short term proposition. The technology will have to mature, it will take time to educate the market, and most importantly, the price will need to drop. But at the end of the day its a category of computer that needs to exist, one that everyone will eventually buy into, and the likelihood is Apple will own the segment.

• It’s a new type of computer, a lifestyle computer, one you throw on the couch, casually pick up off the coffee table, grab when you’re in bed.
  From Business Insider: In three years, when the low-end WiFi-powered iPad costs $199, many households will buy 3 or 4 of them and just leave them lying around the house. These iPads won’t be “owned” by any one member of the household, the way PCs and cell phones are. They won’t live on desks, the way desktops do, and they won’t be carried everywhere, the way mobile phones are. They’ll just be there, around the house, on tables and counters, the way today’s books, magazines, games, and newspapers are, booted up, ready to use. Eventually, every household will have them.
• The iPad Will Take Off When It Breaks the $299 Price Level
  From Walt Mossberg (WSJ): But I will remind you that the iPhone came out at $599 and they dropped it to $399 within 60 days, not because it wasnt selling at all, but because it wasnt selling as fast as they hoped, and then it began to take off, and of course it took off much much more when it went to $199…
• You’re going to see them everywhere, and you’re going to want one.
  From David Carr (NY Times): Imagine youre on an airplane, or on a train, or in a car or with somebody, and they seem to have a whole the whole web in their hands, a whole movie in their hands, its not like the iphone where they are constantly trying to make you look at it, its going to be sitting next to you and you’re going to be going “Wow! Thats an amazing looking thing.”
• The experience of using some software and web services will be better on the iPad than anywhere else.
  From Joe Hewitt (Facebook.com): My goal was initially just to make a mobile companion for the facebook.com mothership, but once I got comfortable with the platform I became convinced it was possible to create a version of Facebook that was actually better than the website! …Except there was one thing keeping me from reaching that ceiling: the screen was too small… The bottom line is, many apps which were cute toys on iPhone can become full-featured power tools on the iPad, making you forget about their desktop/laptop predecessors.
• The iPad is the future of computing, because it simple, fast and just works.
  From TechCrunch: The iPad is a computer for people … who don’t like the idea of upgrading their 3D drivers, or adjusting their screen resolution, or installing new memory. Who don’t understand why their computer gets slower and slower the longer they own it. My mom… It does exactly what she needs. It will let her watch movies and listen to music and read books on long flights. It will make using a computer fun instead of an annoying chore. But it also won’t allow her to install umpteen news and weather gadgets that start up on boot and slow her computer to a crawl. It won’t suddenly forget how to talk to a network, or get so confused by all of the software installs and uninstalls that you finally have to break down and reinstall the system from scratch.
• Its a new market, which means it will take much longer to reach main stream adoption
  From Steve Blank (summarized/amended): A new market is one in which you need to create the market to sell your product. If you have to spend 20 minutes describing the market, you’re in a new market! A startup in a New Market (enabling customers to do something they never could before,) might be unprofitable for 5 or more years, (hopefully with the traditional hockey stick revenue curve,) while one in an Existing Market might be generating cash in 12-18 months.