Well, Stephen Fry wrote down his thoughts on the device (tested it first hand at the event as well) here: https://www.stephenfry.com/2010/01/28/ipad-about/. And I agree with pretty much everything he’s said.
I for one wouldn’t call it garbage. Like I said before, Apple set a standard in a market niche. A market niche that other companies already dared to venture in but didn’t have the balls to set standards for, looking at companies like HP here. Apple now showed the world that the market exists and that there’s a big player entered the game. Other companies -will- follow, other companies -will- try to surpass Apple’s standard, Apple -will- keep improving it, just like they did with the iPod and the iPhone.
It does lack things like multitasking and flash (amongst others), but that doesn’t mean it won’t find its audience. People that are looking for a cheap laptop/netbook so they can do multitasking, won’t find their hail in the iPad. But there’s people that just want a central device that offers a big enough screen to read books on, watch movies on, work on and surf the web on, simple tasks that don’t really -require- multitasking, … Those people will lean towards the iPad (which is cheap, no matter how you turn it).
On top of that, the SDK already revealed some “secrets” about the future of the iPad, giving us hints at what the device is capable of (for example: VOIP has been found in the SDK). This first version might look like it’s limited, but once it starts off, once other players in the market will start competing, then we’ll see what the iPad is capable of. It might be disappointing, it might not be, nobody knows for sure right now. But I wouldn’t write it off just now. This has potential, and now it’s down to Apple to make sure that the device lives up to its potential.
Personally, I’m waiting to see/test the device whether it can fill my needs for on-the-road entertainment through art, movies or books (especially the possibilities in terms of art speak to me. the iPhone app that allows you paint small things is already brilliant enough for me, too bad I cba to get an iPhone for just that).