Sure, why not?
They popularised this type of product and they associated it with the name "pad".
What's wrong with saying that they are likely responsible for the shift away from calling these things tablets? Seems pretty straight forward to me.
It was essentially a joke - they aren't responsible for the names everyone gives a tablet hereafter but have you never experienced the feeling that you wished the breakthrough device of a certain class was better named such that all the copycats didn't sound so ridiculous thereafter?
For example, I half expect an asian OEM tablet whose gimic is that it is impregnated with a bug resistant coating called... the Sanitary Pad.