The iPad has been the focus of speculation for months and is being announced and displayed for a select audience today in California.  The iPad builds off of the success of the iPhone, and iPod and extends it onto a 9.0″+ screen.  With a keyboard that’s on screen and powered by Apple’s iBook, iTunes, and App Store Apple is beating everyone to the punch hoping to sell eBooks to people.  You’ll be able to listen to music, watch movies, play games and of course…read books.  The iPad is many things but it isn’t a netbook.  Starting at $599 the pricing leaves a lot of room for people who are comfortable using a netbook, which retail for an average of $300.

The iPad will be a success because of all they hype and marketing Apple is sure to put behind it.  When considering the benefits it seems that it offers something drastically different than a netbook.  The core of a netbook is Windows 7, Microsoft’s latest operating system.  It may not be as simple or slick as the OS of an iPhone but it’s what many people are used to and what people rely on for many of the tasks they do every day.

For people who use iTunes and actually buy music, or use it to rent movies they will be delighted about the idea.  Netbook users fall in between the relentless hacker, or the low end simple customer.  When they want to watch movies, they do so from movies they’ve ripped onto their computer, a website in Asia with a hosted version of a bootleg, or stream it through Netflix or Amazon.  When they want to listen to music, they fire up Pandora or one of the other many online sites which let you listen to music online.

When the dust and the awe settles people will continue to spend on netbooks.  You can’t get a fully functional portable computer with the ability to multitask and handle many of the other day to day tasks you do for under $300 with the exception of a netbook.  This gives a hint as to how function smartbooks can be since they use the same kind of processor the iPad uses.  It’s going to be interesting to see how netbook brands react to this announcement as well as how customers looking for value will react to getting the latest and greatest for a few hundred more.

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