To be fair, Apple has a multi-decade career of design-award-winning tech products. The new iPad has double the number of pixels of the iPad 2, which will make high-definition video memorable-viewing. Storage requirements will increase, and Apple can expect to drive paid subscription to their iCloud service (the first 5GB is free, so you can get your essential documents and a bunch of hi-res TIFFs up there before you have to pay). So too with gaming apps, available via Apple's App Store. Their vertically integrated model is reaching its zenith.
Apple used to be an expensive personal computer whose adherents were sometimes fanatical, and which found favor among designers and publishing-industry types. It was always a single-digit market-share product, often derided by enterprises and governments alike. Yet journalists like myself have used Macintosh computers to do "heavy lifting" in both creative endeavors and work-related tasks for decades. The Mac computing platform is finding more favor than ever due to devices like the iPad, and there are more functionality-enhancing open-source programs for the Mac than the iPad--check (if you use Apple's QuickTime player for multimedia, I recommend ).
Partly because of this, Apple's main competitor for its iPad is its MacBook Air. With a full-size keyboard and slots for peripherals, the Air is a better platform for many users. Nobody's selling MacBook Air futures in Mongkok, but it's a serious work-computer that hopefully will get the super-res iPad 3 screen in its next iteration.
As a longtime Mac user, it's bizarre to see the company so lauded by the mainstream and so besieged by its gadget-fanatics. I've had grim-faced besuited financial tell me "real men don't drag-and-drop" without a trace of irony. Nowadays, perhaps the same suits plan to put their domestic helper in a queue for Apple's latest device...or make deals with the boys in Mongkok.
In Hong Kong, sometimes we seem to forget that the primary purpose of a flat is for people to live in, and sometimes we forget that the purpose of a tech-device is different from that of a designer-bag: the latest and greatest isn't a must-have. The iPad 3 is a nice piece of gear, but Apple sometimes seems buried under a mountain of hype. Considering their other crucial tasks (issuing security updates to both OS X and iOS, continuing to support their chipsets down the Intel Core 2 Duo, revamping various product lines and keeping their supply chain humming while ensuring their assembly-workers have reasonable workplaces/hours and their construction processes respect the environment), while it's nice to have so many revenue streams, Apple must never forget their original users: people like me who appreciate a well designed, evolved personal computer operating system and hardware that matches those standards.