With Apple announcing the release of the iPad can someone enlighten me as to exactly what the point of this thing is?

A guy I work with has 2 iPod's, iPhone, MacBook Pro and probably a whole host of other Apple gadgets I've not seen and was totally raving about getting an iPad on Friday but when I asked him why he couldn't seem to come up with an answer.

I'm not totally anti-Apple as I was given an iPod which I do quite like as I can take all my music on holiday with me but to be honest if I could be bothered my Nokia smart phone could just as easily do the same.

Has Apple managed to get into the human psyche of some people so much that they will buy absolutely anything that they produce no matter what the (very expensive) cost or am I missing something?

Dom