The iPad introductory video has Jonathan Ive waxing poetic on the Arthur C. Clarke chestnut about advanced technology seeming like magic. This is the core of the Apple product promise. Stuff that works super well, with flair and finesse well ahead of the curve.
Magic is even built right into the rhetoric of the Steve Jobs presentations, with the "one more thing" style product reveals.
When the iPhone came out, a reasonable reaction was "can you really build such a thing". One is used to admiring the relentless drive to perfect software and objects, no feature is sacred, everything is expendable is something else can deliver a better experience.
The problem with the iPad is that it doesn't deliver on the product promise. There is simply nothing ungraspable about the device. The screen, the battery, the applications - it's all stuff we understand very well. We're being shown a magic trick that we all know how to do.
Maybe the second version will have the OLED screen and 20 hr battery life this one was supposed to have.