These are pulled from From Stephen’s Fry’s excellent piece for Time on the iPad and Steve Jobs.
Phil Schiller Senior Vice President Worldwide Product Marketing:
There’s a negative way of saying that, and a positive. ‘Oh, it’s just a big iPhone … boo!’ or ‘Hey, it’s like a big iPhone … cool!’ Luckily, millions of people have those, so there is an instant ease and familiarity when they first encounter the iPad. As for everything else, it’s not about the features — it’s about the experience. You just have to try it to see what I mean.
Jonathan Ive, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design:
In many ways, it’s the things that are not there that we are most proud of. For us, it is all about refining and refining until it seems like there’s nothing between the user and the content they are interacting with.
And finally Steve Jobs:
I think the experience of using an iPad is going to be profound for many people, I really do. Genuinely profound. When people see how immersive the experience is, how directly you engage with it … the only word is magical.