Is iPad the future?

'iPad. Available today.'

This was the subject line that appeared in my inbox this morning from Apple. Simple and to the point, following a wave of publicity, the latest offering from the brand needs no further introduction.

The email then contained a huge slanted picture of the iPad, made to look like the scrolling text as seen at the beginning of the Star Wars movies. This is the future - apparently, and you can 'click here' to get it, reads the email. I clicked, but I don't know why.

Slick, light and super-cool - the iPad is as much an accessory as it is a machine. It resembles and acts like the iPhone, but is bigger and therefore better, according to fans.

They do have a point. After all, people with iPhone and iPods love nothing better than to let the world know they're on-trend. Palm Pre's? Nokias? HTC? Nexus One? Motorola Droid? No, no, no, no, no- it's all about Apple. And in this case, the Big Apple.

'iPad therefore I am', as one writer put it. It may be fickle, but as with designer clothes and flash cars, the iPad makes a status statement. A step up from a laptop, everything is on one screen, making it less bulky.

Looks aside, the iPad features applications just like the iPod and iPhone, which means at a simple touch of the screen, the gadget is now also a newspaper, a cinema, a timetable, a games console and the list goes on. It's a techy's dream gadget, one would think. Although the Confidential nerds, beg to differ.

Confidential web developer, Alex Fisher said: “It's nothing more than a fancy electronic picture frame.”

Communications and circulations manager, Tristan Welch added: “It answers a question that no one's asked.”

What might that question be, I asked, to which he replied: “How can Apple trick you into buying the same product again?”

At £429 (and that's for the cheapest 16GB model) Apple is onto another winner if, as Tristan says, it's no more advanced than previous incarnations. Especially if they shortly bring out an updated version which will leave the original iPad redundant sooner than anticipated by eager fans.

Still, as an entertainment device, more so than a business tool this shouldn't pose too much of a problem in an age where we've seen CD players, DVD players, MP3 players, flat screens, HD TV, advancements in mobile phones and of course laptops, all within the last 20 or so years. But is iPad the next big thing on this list or have Apple lost the plot. Vote on the homepage.