Will it not be better waiting for competitors versions to come in and at lower price point?
No, because like everything that is defined by its ability to "compete with the random_apple_product" they will be sh*t. Companies need to stop chasing Apple and make their own products because it is impossible to out-apple Apple.
Not everyone is an Apple fanboy so there will be plenty of people looking for something cheaper/better than their offering..
Im not wearing my fanboy hat right now
What I mean is I would rather see other companies try an innovate in a space instead of blindly following in the wake of Apple. Fanboy or not, their ability to completely change/invent markets is their greatest strength and you end up with the other companies just trying to emulate those ideas and either a) failing, releasing a completely inferior product, or b) making something that looks like a knock off with no innovation. (See all the recent LG & Samsung iPhone wannabes).
The iPhone has single handedly caused the biggest shift, and improvement, in smartphones in history and now everyone is clamouring to keep up. The *only* people that are close to making something as good (indeed, for many people it suits them better) is Google. A company with a history of… completely changing/inventing markets.
Although Android was clearly catalysed by the iPhone, its ferocious rate of upgrades and improvements make it the only real contender worth looking at. They are not just slavishly copying features but are actively going out and trying to make the phone experience better, make it integrate better with your life. For that they should be applauded.
If you are Samsung, or LG, or, heaven forbid, Nokia and think that slapping a touch interface on your phone is "good enough", then you have a world of pain ahead of you in your market.
Will there be cheaper alternatives to the iPad? Probably. Will they completely suck? Almost definitely. Will there be similarly priced competitors that dont suck? Yes. But not for at least a year. The "great iPad killer", the JooJoo, née Crunchpad, is an unmitigated disaster. HP have cancelled their slate because they realised that 11 years of sticking Windows on a touch interface is retarded. Android tablets are a way off yet and the Symbian/Maemo stuff is an interface disaster. HP may have a trick up their sleeve having bought Palm because WebOS is actually quite a nice, and more importantly touch oriented, interface.
The fact remains, the iPad is the first tablet device to do it right. It has its flaws, but not enough for me not to buy two of them. It has sold more devices that probably all the tablet computers in history combined, remains sold out across the US, the initial UK/European allotment is sold out and virtually everyone that uses one goes "Oooo". Its an expensive(ish) device for what amounts to a secondary device, but for those of us with a little discretionary income it will become out main device for sofa surfing and quick out-and-about use. Its not a laptop replacement, but a lot of the time I, and most people if youre honest, dont actually need a full-blown computer/OS for the tasks they need to do.
