I'm glad you said "tablet" and not "ipad" because I honestly agree..
When I mention ipad in a moment.. I am referring to ALL tablets.. but, ipad gets the rap since its the first serious contender.
iPad bugs me because first, everyone is claiming it is a "laptop replacement" and.. I feel there are certain standards for a laptop.. A cd/dvd drive in many cases... Usb ports are nice as well, not to mention a keyboard.
I had a customer tell me "play with one five minutes and you won't want to put it down" in a condescending manner when I said "it is not and never will be a laptop replacement".. I stand by this now.. laptops are for more than ****ing around on the internet.. Some people don't have 500$ to blow on something that really has no advantage over any product it competes with.
Anandtech said it best.. "it is not even a great 2nd computer.. maybe 3rd or 4th.. or 5th" and ironically anandtech praised it quite highly.
However, this is because lets face it.. apple did what apple does best.. created a shiny product that has enough "fun" value to justify purchasing even if it is horribly lacking in practicality on a few levels.
I would not mind a 5" or 6" internet tablet device dedicated to being a powerhouse at its size... I LOVED the n810 although i do admit it lacked polish to the 10th power. However, something that is 5" or 6" has a 2 ghz processor and a sufficent amount of ram and hdd would be amazing. And I still wouldn't want to pay more than like 300$ and I would still want like 12 hours battery life. (yes I'm picky here.. but, this is why I don't think any real net tablet is worth my time)
Small enough that I could quickly type out notes and junk on. Big enough to browse the web comfortably on and powerful enough that I won't have to worry about it being bogged down for any given reason would be nice.
however, the idea of anything bigger than 5" or 6" just gets to be a bit out there.. I mean at 5 inches..they could make a pretty comfortably keyboard on screen, still have plenty of room for whatever you want to watch without eye strain and your in a pretty nice position..
I find the ipad and other tablets.. just for some reason disgusting.. I mean I've seen people's reasons for wanting them.. "Oh I can read the news paper with it!"... well yeah.. now you can even read the news paper from an ebook reader... "oh I can put recipe's on it!"... are you serious? 500$ for a recipe book?...
The ONLY thing I can say redeems it and I CANNOT say this about any other tablet until they come out.. is old people believe the ipad is "easy to use" and they do get some benefit from it they wouldn't get otherwise... being able to see pics of grand kids and general stuff like that..
However, I dislike tablet pc's as a whole.. partly because they are being marketed as this wonderful thing... When it really does so far make me think its little more than an over sized phone... and I am not even trying to just sit back and say "oh ipad = iphone" i'm saying until something really concrete comes out in the way of net tablets.. your not really getting anything besides an over priced toy as far as functionality goes...
If they ever manage to shrink it down to 5" stick a 2 ghz processor and a gig of ram in there.. let me know.. especially if it has usb ports and 12 hour of battery life while in use.. and it isn't a huge clunky awkward device...
Until then.. I am not really too anxious to jump in.. Once it gets to the point I just described? well yeah.. I could use that.. I could bring it to school browse the web between classes.. get email over my school's wifi, use it as a dedicated pda device and at 5" I could probably bring it just about anywhere.. so it could be an mp3-pda-mobile computing device.. since I can't get a smartphone at the time.. but, right now.. I see nothing in the tablet field that really makes me go "oh cool, thats something everyone should have!"
500$ on a ipad? no thanks... I would take a 5870 over an ipad any day thank you very much.