iPad - is a role in business here yet? Hurry up!

I get excited at every headline I read that mentions "business" and "Apple" in the same sentence.  The iPad momentum is exciting, and recently there has wave of important business people praising the iPad.   AT&T's CEO is a great fanboy.  I hear SAP founder Hasso Platner also sees a big future for the iPad in business.  NYC Mayor and Bloomberg chairman Michael Bloomberg is sold on the iPad (see picture).   Great news, but what problem are they trying to solve with the iPad? 

When the iPad was first rumored to be coming out, the nay-sayers all said: "OK, sure, Apple could do something cool here, but what is the problem the magic tablet is going to solve?"  As SP Chan highlights in the Seattle Times, there have been tablets before, what's new?

I said: Just wait, you'll see. It will be SOOO magical, that it will just fall into place. I saw it immediately sliding into people's lives.  I assumed we would all say in unison "I cannot believe I lived this long without this thing".  I was absolutely confident in the immediate coming future.

But here we are.  4 months after release, 7+ months it was announced later (an eon in tech time).  Here is what we still don't have:

1. iPad business solutions
2. iPad competitors

Let's go in reverse order.  I cannot believe we don't have competitors, STILL. Really?  They all knew it was coming. Last year at CES there were dozens of tablets coming.  But we have exactly NONE.  4 months later.  WTF?? I am pleased that Apple continues to have this lead.  It shows true, impressive first-to-market mojo. We suspected it was coming. I, for one, said it would change my live when it hit.  Wouldn't other tech companies go ALL OUT to get a product to market to get into the mix? Even just to get SOMETHING out there?  But we got nuthin.

Is that because there are not any real tablet solutions out there yet?  Where are the iPad killer apps?  They just don't seem to be out there yet.  I keep watching, really.  I  thought by now there would be a WAVE of things happening in this space that would make my head spin.  Remember I said "It will change my life"? Where is my change?  At SAP's user conference, SAPHIRE, SAP and some partners showed some apps working with iPad. Those don't seem to be very big iPad sales drivers.  There was no killer app listed in Michael Bloombergs list of daily uses.

What I am getting at, is that maybe we are still at a place in the market where the tablet, even a tablet as awesomely cool as the iPad, is still NOT solving a problem yet.   Here is my iPad experience.

I have one. I have it with me at all times.  I have the iWork suite on it. Here is what I use it for: reading.  I read every night on the iPad.  I find it to be an amazing eReader. I wanted an eReader, and now I have one.  It's great to have th internet on it, right there.  My family loves to DoodleJump on it.  Last week, my uncle, who is a classic business-computer user asked for an iPad demonstration.  I gave him one, and he was wowed by the coolness.  His conclusion was it was not something he NEEDED right now.  It's not for him. 

My teenage niece asked for an iPad demo the same weekend.  She loved the touchiness of it, but was looking for the camera. Then she looked fo iChat on.  It's not for her.

The iPad is a very cool gadget.  It's a device the Apple fan boy/girl HAS to have.  It is a device that the gadget geek has got to have - if only because there is no OTHER tablet.  Owners love them.  I love mine. My wife gives my a hard time because I sleep with it.  I have it with me all the time.  But when my business associates and friends ask me what the hell I do with it, I sheepishly say, …."I... read on it...."  And then I add.. "EVERY NIGHT!"

I am still confident it's coming.  I do believe the solutions are coming.  I wait for the killer apps.  I will keep my iPad with me.