Apple entered a whole new market with the release of the iPad, and all the specs are now available on their website. The device will become available within 60 or 90 days, depending on whether you want the 3G+WiFi or simple the WiFi version.

Some have said that this is simply a larger iPhone or iPod touch, although I have some reasons listed below to indicate that it isn’t. Some say that the device is “closed” and simply indicates that Apple will try to restrict the Apps that are on it. However, what Apple has done is that they have opened up their marketplace to developers, offering an opportunity for people who needed a large target market – and they delivered, and are continuing to deliver.

Apple has defined its competition, and the integration of both software and hardware has allowed the company to get where it is today.

iPad Overview

From YouTube comes a video that was taken from the Apple site.

The iPod Touch

The iPod touch is priced at $199, $299, and $399 for 16, 32, and 64GB and wights 4.05 ounces, with a 3.5″ screen. It is roughly 2.8 times smaller than the new iPad, and offers a resolution of 480×320 pixels.

It can fit in your pocket, it makes it easy to consume movies, music, and the Internet while on the go. The iPod is Apple’s flagship product for helping Apple come back from a period when the company was looking at bankruptcy and never returning. Without the iPod and iMac, where would Apple be today? Probably gone.

The iPad is different from the iPod touch due to its size. When you want to listen to music or quickly catch up on email, you would bring with you the iPod touch. When you want to share content with others, you will use the iPad. It’s a completely different market, and until you realize the differences between the two, you will view them as one and the same.

No headphones come with the iPad, which clearly separates the intended market. Adding pictures, movies, and more to the iPad is much easier than any device currently available, especially with the iPad Camera Connection Kit.

The iPod Touch: Ideal for anyone who wants to take their entire music collection on-the-go. Pricing ranges from $199 to $399.

The iPad: Ideal for people who want to read books, connect with others, read email, create documents, and replace a basic computer. Prices range from $499 to $699.

The Kindle

We’ll be comparing the 9.7″ Amazon Kindle device (the DX). The device is at just over 1/3 of an inch, compared to 1/2 an inch for the iPad. The Kindle only displays black and white (like real paper) with 16 shades of gray. There are no contracts, no monthly fees, allowing you to download more than 3,500 books to the device. It lasts for on week on a single charge. Pricing for New Releases is $9.99, which appears to be the price point for many books through the new iBook Store.

The pricing for the same-sized device as the iPad is just $10 less than the 16GB device Apple released, making the iPad a much better deal. Unless you hate the way Apple runs its business and its products, you’ll continue to look at the Kindle as the ideal device. The Kindle does one thing extremely well – and that is reading books and magazines, as well as some basic websites. Amazon never intended to create an all-in-one device, but they wanted to bring it to the masses. Initially, the Kindle was more expensive ($399 for the basic model).

The Kindle: The Kindle is solely for reading books, and the price point for the 6″ model is competitive compared to some other e-book readers, but not great for anything else. The iTunes Store makes the iPad an extremely affordable product compared to the Kindle.

Netbooks

Anyone looking for a basic computer for basic gaming, typing documents, and browsing the web may look at netbooks for their size and convenience. However, they also fail at what people want – convenience. Sure, you can install early any operating system or applications on them, but they don’t make great devices for long-term use.

The average netbook is in the 8-to-10.1″ range. Hard drive vary greatly, but for the price range of $280 to $500+, netbooks typically include 160GB hard drives, a 1.60GHz Intel Atom Processor, and 1GB of memory. Only very basic wireless connectivity has been built-in, and their weight is nearly double that of the iPad.

On the iPad, the resolution of 1024×768 is quite similar to the resolution of many netbook computers, as well as some larger desktop computers at lower resolutions. With the 9.7″ resolution, it makes the pictures extremely clear.

The processor in the iPad is a 1GHz is an A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip processor.

Updates: We’ll be updating this in the near-future if more details and discussion comes in from people who are looking at this device.