Apple finally unveiled its latest product last night – the eagerly awaited iPad.

Fans believe the tablet PC will revolutionise the way we read newspapers and magazines, just as the iPod changed the way people listen to music. Nigel Burton reports.

THREE weeks ago, some of the world’s largest electronics companies launched a plethora of tablet PCs – small computers that use a touch-sensitive screen rather than a keyboard – at CES, the world’s biggest electronics tradeshow, in Las Vegas. The silence was deafening.

Despite their good looks and technology, the HP Multitouch, the Lenovo Ideapad and the Sony Dash Mobile Internet Device failed to create much of a stir.

Instead, the tablet that was on everyone’s mind wasn’t even at CES. In fact, three weeks ago it didn’t officially exist.

Last night, Apple finally revealed the tablet PC everyone has been waiting for – the iPad – and gadget fans are already predicting it will change the game.

On the face of it, the iPad isn’t particularly revolutionary.

It looks like an iPhone on steroids, has a 9.7in multitouch display, runs at a speedy 1 Ghz and will come with between 16GB and 64GB of flash memory depending on the depth of your wallet. That’s about par for the course for a run-ofthe- mill tablet PC.

But the iPod wasn’t exactly revolutionary back in 2001, and the iPhone was arguably a step behind the smartphone cutting-edge when it arrived three years ago (and it still doesn’t have a decent camera).

That didn’t stop them becoming must-have icons and Apple from being a slightly quirky computer company into an industry colossus.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive officer, is a master at stoking expectation and his showmanship has reached new heights for the iPad. Expectations about the iPad are huge.

During last night’s unveiling, several wellrespected technology websites crashed. Their servers couldn’t cope with the millions of people wanting to see what all the fuss was about.

When iPad goes on sale later this year, the first versions will command a price premium. Anyone lucky enough to get one will be able to sell it for an instant profit.

Some enterprising eBay sellers are already taking deposits. Bids just to be in the queue had already reached $1,000 before the device was unveiled.

Why? Because anything Apple does is cool. The iPad may not have a markedly better specification than the Lenovo Ideapad but it looks so much sexier. Sorry Lenovo, but it’s like comparing a Lada with a Lamborghini.

The iPad will play music, videos, run Apple’s office software and connect to the internet. It also runs e-book software and you’ll be able to buy titles (called, unsurprisingly, iBooks) from the iTunes store.

Until today, the must-have e-book reader was the Amazon Kindle. The iPad killed the Kindle – with its low resolution black-andwhite screen and clunky interface – stone dead.

No wonder five of the world’s biggest publishers have already signed deals with Apple, and newspaper publishers are wondering if the iPad won’t do for circulations (online and print) what the iPod did for listening to music.

Me? I think I will wait for the hullabuloo to die down before I join the iPad revolution.

After all, early adopters who bought the first iPhones were left disappointed when the original was quickly replaced by better specified models.

And there remains a degree of scepticism that – in the medium term – people will turn their backs on tablets and return to laptops.

The technology has been tried twice (on Windows CE and Windows XP) and both times it flopped.

Is there really a market for a device somewhere between a Smartphone and a laptop?

If Apple can’t make this market work, no one can.