I'm not sure why people are disappointed in the iPad beyond it just feels trendy to do so. Sure, Apple could have thrown in a camera, but other than that the iPad is pretty much exactly what most thought it would be -- a giant iPhone/iPod. And that's *amazing*.
It's currently running iPhone 3.2. By June/July it will be running iPhone 4.0. And it will be running it on an almost 10" screen. The constraints that eliminates shouldn't be underestimated.
Look at the iPad as the iPhone in 2007. Didn't even have an SDK. iPad does, and thanks to iPhone it knows how to use it, as do developers.
This is the device I give my less tech savvy friends *instead* of a laptop (and kiss their tech support calls goodbye), and this is the device *I* use to consume portable media, to read, to watch, to finger paint, to play with iWork (still need a computer to work with it, and to do WebDev).
If Steve Jobs really thinks this is the most important thing he's done, given what he's done, and given the potential this device has as *big* iPhone/iPod touch, I'm *really* interested to see where it is at launch in March, where it is at 4.0 in June/July, and where it is next year for v2.
I'm going on record. Next big thing. Pun intended.