I'm no Apple fan...
... I simply buy what suits me best for what I need the object to do, but people can yell 'glorified this' and 'pointless that' all they want, just like they did when the iphone was first launched, Apple have a habit of releasing key products that give other manufacturers a kick up the arse.
Who pays for that ultimately? We do. But nobody makes you.
I hate ipods and iphones for quite legitimate reasons (and yes I have used them), but I love my HTC Desire and if it wasn't for the iphone I wouldn't be using a phone so refined as the Desire is. I'm man enough to acknowledge that.
I won't use anything but A Macbook Pro for recording and editing music as the software is second to none. But think it's left wanting by my cheapo-mart Windows laptop for day to day sheer flexibility.
I don't moan about it though. Why? Because it was my choice to buy the Macbook.
Same with the ipad… if someone wants one then it’s their prerogative and they shouldn’t be slagged off for their product choice simply by default if it works for them.