The iPad, a product designed by Apple that comes on the market in China next month, is undeniably cool. But will the much-touted tablet device be a sensible choice for consumers?

It will certainly appeal to those who want to be techno-chic. The iPad features a 9.7-inch touch-screen, new iBook service and functions from e-book reading and video watching to gaming. The price starts at US$499, similar to Amazon's Kindle DX, a 9.7-inch e-book reader with a more shabby black and white screen.

"We want to kick off 2010 with a truly revolutionary and magical product," Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, said during a conference to promote the new product last month.

Where design innovation is concerned, the iPad is no trend-setter, compared with Apple's earlier iPod, iPhone and Macbook Air. It resembles a bigger iPhone with a larger screen.

Besides offering an improved multimedia experience, iPad features a new application called iBooks. It allows users to both read e-books on the device and, importantly, to purchase new books and download them directly to the iPad.

Apple hopes to kick-start the market for e-books with its iPad and iBooks service, and replicate its success with the iPod and iTunes.

"IBooks store is to books what iTunes is to music," said Adam Leach, principal analyst of Ovum, a United Kingdom-based IT consulting firm.

This puts the iPad in direct competition with other e-book readers, most notably Amazon's Kindle. The revenue-generating capacity of the e-book market looks significant, with early estimates for the Kindle 2 suggesting that the device had earned over US$100 million in little more than two months after its launch in February last year, Leach said in a note.

The iPad's advantage over the similarly priced Kindle DX is that it provides a host of multimedia functions as well as e-book reading. For example, it supports playing embedded video inside a newspaper article, which was demonstrated by New York Times during the iPad conference.

"We think we've captured the essence of reading the newspaper," said Jobs.

Never underestimate the formidable technical and marketing prowess of Apple, which operates iTunes Store, the world's most successful online multimedia content and application store.

Apple will definitely grab some market share from the booming e-reader market, whose sales will grow 75 percent to 16.21 million units in 2011, according to Digitimes estimates. On the other hand, iPad's debut is expected to boost the whole market size of e-books.

The iPad is based on the iPhone operating system. The applications built for the iPhone will run on the iPad, providing users with access to over 140,000 existing applications.

"I want to own an iPad because I can transfer my purchased applications (from iTunes) easily from computers on it," said Joyce Mei, a 24-year-old young woman who has already has an 8GB iPod Touch and a 13-inch Macbook.

With the launch of iPad, Apple has completed the production chain from laptops (Macbook) to portable devices (iPad and iPod) to mobile phones (iPhone).

"We are the largest mobile device company in the world ? larger than Sony, bigger than Samsung, and, by revenue, even bigger than Nokia," said Jobs, who has changed the company name to Apple from Apple Computer.

Apple's rivals are numerous and notable: Nokia, Sony, Samsung and now Amazon. But none of those giants operates a successful online shop like iTunes Store.

In the dot-com era, the rule is: Content is king.

In my opinion, Apple is one of the best examples of companies taking advantage of "cloud computing," though it seldom discusses the concept directly during its media conferences.

Cloud computing is Internet-based development and use of computer technology. The term cloud is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on the cloud drawing used to depict the Internet in computer network diagrams. Typical cloud computing providers deliver common business applications online, which are accessed from a Web browser, while the software and data are stored on servers.

As a result, Apple need not depend on hardware design innovation anymore. Instead, it helps partners and developers distribute content and application based on the revenue-sharing business model and qualified Apple-designed products. Through the process, consumers can easily access the services they want, and Apple gets income and market share.

The hardware design completely serves consumer demand and cloud computing, like iPad's large screen, long battery life and super mobility.

Some argue that iPad should feature camera and phone functions. I'm not sure I agree. Would you really want to call friends or take photos with a laptop-size gadget?

Other shortcomings, such as lack of support for multi-task and Flash, can be fixed easily through software upgrades.

That brings us back to my original question: Is the iPad a wise choice for consumers? It's revolutionary and magical for Apple's business model, but not for the hardware itself. The iPad is expected to be on shelves in China next month. The product description has been published on the Chinese-language Website.

But I think the iPad will attract only a niche group of enthusiasts in China. The company faces challenges of policy, pricing and network conditions to promote the new device.

"(Apple) fans may easily overlook all the shortcomings in their eagerness to own an iPad," said Lei Yun, an analyst of research firm In-Stat. "But most consumers probably won't buy what is really just a bigger iPhone."

Pang Mei, a university student, is among the latter. "The reason is simple," Pang said. "I can't use the functions I want in China. Therefore, it's just a gadget with a beautiful 10-inch screen."

The iTunes Store, like other global popular services like YouTube and Facebook, isn't available in China. The iPhones sold in China are without Wi-Fi functions, which has made Apple's iconic product less attractive in the domestic market, compared with Nokia's flagship N97.

What's worse, Apple doesn't support popular local services like Xunlei (file sharing) and PPS (online video). "Maybe Jobs has forgotten the Chinese market," Pang mused.

In fact, Apple has ambitions to penetrate the Chinese market, the world's No. 1 mobile phone and No. 2 PC market. The US-based consumer giant plans to open two directly operated Apple Stores in Shanghai and one in Beijing this year.

"It's impressive, but is it useful?" asked Wei Zhong, an editor of an IT magazine in Shanghai. "Chinese people are used to getting content and application for free online. Few people will pay US$9.90 for a digital book, film or music (iTunes Store's price). They will choose Xunlei, PPS and Baidu instead."

Even before the debut of the iPad, Chinese makers launched cloned products, Shanzhai versions from Chinese copycats.

A 10.2-inch device called P88, with video playing and reading functions as well as a big-capacity hard disk, debuted in the domestic market last year, according to an article on Shanzhai.com.

The network infrastructure level, a necessary condition of cloud computing, also poses an obstacle in China, where Wi-Fi spots are available only in several major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, and Wi-Fi signals don't even cover the whole urban landscape.

Some people have high expectations for 3G, which debuted in China a year ago.

But the iPad with 3G functions costs at least US$630, way out of reach for most Chinese consumers. On the other hand, it often takes a long time for an overseas player to cooperate with Chinese carriers in getting domestic 3G services in its products.

It took two years for Apple to introduce the No-Wi-Fi iPhone into China, with the cooperation of China Unicom. Amazon also can't launch Kindle on the Chinese mainland though it kicked off the international version of Kindle last year. Imagine the fate of iPad ? an iPad without Wi-Fi?

Without fast Internet services, Chinese consumers prefer installed applications and downloaded content, rather than the "purchase-and-download-online" model.

A driver will choose a GPS with installed maps, even if they contain older data, rather than waiting for half an hour or even longer, often with limited success, to get the latest maps provided by Google, which is a built-in service in iPod Touch, probably in iPad.

"Cloud computing represents the future of IT," said Wei.

"But 'the future' is still far further in China."