I second y0himba and 40hz's (Doctorow's) responses. It will definitely kill the Kindle based on the fact that Apple will allow publishers to charge any price they want for their ebooks. The iPad is primarily a consumption device built to deliver content (and get paid handsomely for it).
The larger problem I see is that the net is quickly being carved up and fenced off while the snapperheads in the media are WOWEE'd! by anything Jobs tosses out, reflecting his narrow vendor concerns (lock-in, no content transfers, proprietary batteries, chargers, etc.). It's really weird to see one after another talk show host get orgasmic over this thing. Already there are 40 governments around the globe that filter the web, and with ACTA coming along with the DMCA and endless patent pissing matches, most information use we enjoy now will suddenly be criminalized to protect influential industries. Soon you'll have to pay a gatekeeper like Rupert Murdoch, Apple, or Microsoft just to get online, taking us back to the old Compuserve/AOL days. Pay-per-view devices like the iPad would drain oceans of information we find now, leaving only highly-policed canals.
An iPad is like building your own private prison -- pay us to lock you in and lock your content down. As long as the media is approved by Apple and makes it into the iPad app store, you're free to use your iPad, that is, as long as their Safari browser will play it. If Apple doesn't approve -- and they're notorious for what appears to be god-based censorship -- neither your app nor its content will ever find you, the consumer. bleh.
