[Editor’s Note: Pay attention here – chances are that if you do, you’ll be more interested in the iPhone as well. –mrh]

It feels like it’s been more than two months since the iPad was announced. The masterful PR craze that preceded it was only matched by the public backlash. Now that the waters are quieter, I would like to ponder a little about our upcoming iLife.

Do we really need a tablet? Tablets are nothing new. Back in 2004, when I was still studying, I was the proud owner of a convertible Acer Tablet PC. I took notes, read comics, ebooks and watched series during class(muted and with subtitles of course!).

In 2006, Intel introduced the Viiv, which was another attempt at introducing the tablets to the mainstream consumer. It failed. Yet, none of the features introduced by the iPad are groundbreaking.  I believe the jokes that the device is nothing more than a large iPhone are off the mark. After all, the iPad does not make phone calls.

In that sense, the iPad and the new tablet market are nothing more than 6 year old technology, in a different package.

The make or break question is: do tablets have a place in our lives? They’re difficult to use on the bus or at the office. They’re unpractical as personal computer replacements. Maybe while traveling, or in the living room. Is there a demand for this? Will the lack of an integrated keyboard harm adoption, now that many phones come with equipped with one? Would people not simply use a laptop or an advanced phone such as the N900? These are questions that cannot be answered yet.

I believe the iPad craze has led many to overlook Apple’s future plans.

During its presentation, Apple introduced the Apple A4, a system-on-a-chip 1GHz CPU/GPU. This is an move worth taking notice of, as it is the first Apple-branded CPU ever. In practice, the chip can achieve impressive performance: play HD video, 10 hour battery life, 1 month on standby. All this, on a screen roughly 4 times the size of an iPhone. This means that with equivalent battery, the next iPhone would be able to be both faster and last significantly longer than the 3GS.

This also means more advanced 3D applications. If you consider that the Unreal Engine 3 has been ported to the platform, making it a very serious contender to Nintendo and Sony.

Pile onto this the sustained rumors that the Apple TV may soon support the iPhone OS. This would give it the ability to play state of the art games, as well as HD movies and music, making Apple an entrant in the console wars.

Very soon, all your entertainment devices might be Apple products.

Your laptop, desktop, phone, tv and tablet, all sync’ed with MobileMe. Whether the public will respond to that idea remains uncertain, but it is a compelling offer.