So Apple has finally introduced the device many experts have been waiting to see for months. Apple has always been interested in coming up with a response to netbooks. The company has been dismissive of netbooks in the past, talking about how it can’t produce a decent laptop for $500 or so. Well, as it turned out, the iPad is going to cost us all at least $500, and that’s not counting the cost of 3G on this device .

The iPad is a great device. It can act as a portable Internet tablet, a mobile video player, and an e-book reader. It will also support lots of apps that Apple already has available in its app store. But it won’t be a netbook killer. Let’s face it. Apple iPad is not a fully-fledged computer. It can certainly be used for blogging and other tasks, but it’s not going to beat your Macbook Air or netbook on the go. Besides, the device doesn’t support multi-processing, so that will always be an issue. It’s true that a lot of netbook owners don’t do anything more than surfing the Internet on the go. For those folks, the iPad is going to be an interesting choice. But if you are planning to do some business work on the go, you may find the iPad underwhelming. iPad apps will certainly make the competition between netbooks and device more interesting. But the iPad is much more pricey than a netbook, and it’s not exactly made to be used a business computer. Considering that Apple was never going to release a netbook anyway, the iPad is not all that bad.