I am still a little drowsy from the effects of the global collective yawn that resulted from the announcement of the iPad. I had really hoped they would release a product that would help to accelerate tablet computing adoption, the general consensus from all but the most ardent Apple fans is that I was obviously way off.

Despite that, I found have found some encouragement from the announcement. I think the announcement really strengthens the proposition that I made in my last post "Why Isn’t My Netbook Just a Smartphone Dock?". I don’t know who originated this quote because I have seen it so many times this week … "the iPad is just an oversized iPod touch". The device doesn’t seem to do a lot, or have a lot of capabilities beyond what is available in the iPhone.

I am sure in true Apple fashion they are going to do their best to make iPad exclusive proprietary crap to try and lock people in, but from a capabilities standpoint I don’t see much done on the iPad that couldn’t be done with an iPhone. Despite the lack of additional features, the additional administrative and financial overhead of the iPad is pretty obvious, more money for the device, more money for the service, time spent buying apps, downloading and personalizing … and you have already done that (and paid for that) on your iphone … and even after you set it up you have to maintain and synchronize both devices … what a pain!

So why is the iPad not just an iPhone Dock?

I have a little portable DVD player in my living room that has a dock for an iPod or iPhone. Just slide it in and you have the bigger media experience that Apple is touting with the iPad. So why not make the iPad look and feel exactly as it does today, except replace the brains with a dock that you can slide your iPhone or Touch into? I can’t think of many benefits the current iPad would bring over this type of solution, but there are a lot of obvious disadvantages of having to purchase and maintain the iPad.

I hope there are some Venture Capitalists reading this if so please take me up on this: make an iPod docking device that looks and feels exactly like the iPad, call it the iRad. Put some marketing dollars behind it. Hire Jack Black to talk about its awesomeness, and write a variation of Tenacious D’s "Tribute" about how the ‘iRad’ is the greatest and best device in all the world. Do I smell viral?