I'll have much more to say on this shortly but I need to get two things off my chest first:
1. Apple isn't trying to decide if a niche exists between smartphones and laptops. They are trying to replace netbooks (and eventually laptops) and get people to carry the cloud with them. If you think through the logical progression of the Web, all the data we care about will exist online. The iPad is the device to access it. Very different mode than a laptop. This is the device from the future we've seen on Star Trek. You can buy it today (well in 59 days.)
2. "Our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price." Something about this sentence seemed un-Applelike. As someone who struggles to come up with the "syrupy goodness" of my value props (spoken about in my free eBook) this phrase seemed too forced and wordy. It doesn't even say what it does. "Touch the Web" or "Your life to go." would have been more Apple-like to me. I just don't follow this one…
More soon.
P.S. thank you Dane for the correct spelling of niche 😉