Steve Jobs launches the iSlate to a waiting world

The world waits with bated breath - and then in San Francisco, Steve Jobs unveils the iSlate. So what new delight does Apple have for us?

Well, first off, it's not called an iSlate after all, but an iPad. The iSlate name caught on after Apple registered the domain iSlate, but it turns out that the new device has been christened with the slightly snappier 'iPad'.

Slightly smaller than was anticipated, at half an inch thick with a 9.7 inch screen; the whole thing weighs in at just 1.5 pounds - think of the length and width of a large-ish hardback book - but a fraction of the thickness. Of course it has full touch-screen functionality, with accelerometer and digital compass; as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and anything from 16 to 64GB of storage. In landscape orientation it has an almost full-sized on-screen keyboard, and it also has an impressive 10 hours of battery life and will last a month on standby.

So what does it do? Well, pretty much what we all expected. All your iPhone apps will work on the iPad, and of course the two devices can be synchronised. There's something called iBooks, which lets you download books and use the iPad as an e-book. You can also play games on it, with the likes of EA Games drafted in for game development, resulting in games not disimilar to something you'd find on a PlayStation, for example. And of course you can also watch TV shows, movies, YouTube and so on. As expected, the iPad is being pitched more as an internet enabled entertainment and organiser device than as a PC.

And so to cost. Rumour had it that the device could be as much as £800 to £1000; however surprisingly the non-3G, 16GB model  starts at $499 (about £310). Doubling up storage space will cost you $100 a go (so 32GB models will be $599 and 64GB $699); while adding 3G will cost you an extra $130 (£80).

So is the iPad the single most must-have device ever to be released, or is it just another good Apple project, conveyed on the winds of Apple's fantastic marketing machine? Well, the jury appears to be out. The question everyone was asking themselves prior to the launch was 'is there really space in the market between the smartphone and the netbook PC?' - and so far its certainly not clear that the iPad will really do anything, in and of itself, to create that niche. Steve Jobs may think that the iPad is the best thing since sliced bread but on the whole the press isn't convinced, and we can only wait and see what consumers will make of it.