When Apple introduced the iPad, I sat back and watched as people lined-up to buy what appeared to me to be an over-sized iPod Touch. Despite the handful of times that I flew last year and wished I had a tablet instead of my laptop to use in a cramped airline seat, I resisted the temptation of purchasing an iPad. Then the iPad 2 came along with it’s built-in cameras (something I’m sure Apple left out the first time in order to create perceived obsolescence a year later). The addition of the cameras got me to think, “okay, now I can consider purchasing one of these things.”

So last week I jumped on the Apple site and poked around at my iPad 2 options (AT&T and Verizon coverage is woeful in the areas that I spend most of my time in so a 3G model would be a waste). Even though I can probably write-off the expenditure on my 2011 taxes, as I was looking at the models and the prices I couldn’t help but think, “I’m not convinced that this is a good use of my money.” I have two laptops, a desktop, a netbook, and an Android phone, what gap in my computing experience will the iPad occupy? What am I missing about the iPad 2? I feel like I need to know the answers to these questions before I can say to someone else that the iPad is or isn’t a wise investment for a school 1:1 program.