Apple’s iPad is claiming to have combined the benefits of a laptop and a smartphone.

The much-awaited launch event on Wednesday was followed by speculative articles contemplating the potential of the newest gadget in the iFamily.

Claiming to take the browsing experience to another level, the iPad will – as Steve Jobs modestly put it – enable you to “hold the whole web in your hands”.

Some of the critics have pointed out that in terms of providing something genuinely new, the iPad does not appear to live up to the hype.

In comparison to iPhone, all it’s said to add is size. Bigger screens mean better apps, but whether there’s a need in the market for the iPad is another thing.

Rhi Morgan, from T3 magazine, said in The Independent: “I find it difficult to place this product because I can’t see anybody who needs a laptop buying an iPad, and I can’t see people using it as a smartphone either.”

But not everyone’s all doom and gloom. Daniel Tenner, a guest author in Tech Crunch, is predicting a promising future for the iPad.

Tenner reminds people that in the cases of both iPhone and iPod, the technology critics were proven wrong by the mass adoption. However, as the iPad is not entering an existing market, which would enable it to wipe to floor with its competitors, Tenner notes that a comparison to the Nintendo Wii would be more appropriate.

Instead of providing a console for high-tech gamers, the Nintendo Wii was a console for everyone else entering the huge market of “non-gamers”, a move which turned out to be a stroke of genius.

Tenner wrote: “Apple is making a slick “uncomputer” that’s tailored to those people who don’t actually need a computer. Many gamers ended up buying Wiis too, and I’m sure many geeks will buy iPads, but the real money-maker will be those who don’t even have a Mac, and probably won’t ever have one because it’s too expensive and they don’t need it.”

So, instead of providing earth-shattering, innovative new features, it might be that the iPad has the potential to create a market for tablet computers. Such a market is something the newspaper and publishing industry has been waiting for for a long time.

Answering the concerns of media executives, the iBookstore was launched together with the iPad and is hoped to do to the publishing industry what iTunes did to the music industry.

However, the expectation might be a bit too much as the reading experience has been described as failing to live up to the e-Ink based Amazon’s Kindle and Sony Reader.

But Apple’s trademark detailed design of usability might just be enough to create the buzz.

The Telegraph’s Claudine Beaumont wrote in her review: “The virtual bookshelf, on which your digital tomes sit, is an example of Apple design at its best; elegant, simple, well-executed. The reading experience itself was also delightful, with the pages of the virtual books having the sort of patina you would expect to find on a printed novel.

“For the casual reader though, the inclusion of the iBooks app, and the iBookstore, is a boon, and likely to inspire impulse purchases of novels in much the same way as the iTunes music store on the iPhone and iPod touch is a constant temptation.”

As for the newspaper and magazine publishers, the iPad offers a platform to take advantage of. The New York Times demonstrated its iPad application at the launch event.

Recreating a look of a newspaper, the app allows users to access new features, such as video. Martin Nisenholz, a senior executive of The New York Times, said in the venture with iPad the newspaper is “pioneering the next version of digital journalism.”

While not everyone was convinced of the truly innovative nature that the app claimed to have, the potential is definitely there for a second gold rush of app developers to take part in.

* Weighs 1.5 pounds
* 0.5 inch thin
* 9.7in touchscreen display
* Comes with between 16Gb and 64Gb flash storage and a 1Ghz chip
* Both Wi Hi and 3G connections
* Price will be between $499 and $699 in the US

Sources: The Telegraph, The Independent, BBC, Tech Crunch