Jason Schwarz at Seeking Alpha thinks the iPad will explode in the business sector, becoming Apple’s “flagship product.” He explains:

The iPad is Apple’s upgraded version of a netbook, only it’s better than any netbook ever built. Netbook computers took the market by storm in 2009 by growing over 100 percent year over year to sell approximately 34 million units. The real game changing element of the iPad is that it’s the first computer ever designed to be held with one hand. This simple fact is a very big deal. Because of this, the iPad is primed to usher in a new era of mobile computing efficiency that will take the business world by storm. Nobody is talking about the iPad as a must have business device but that is exactly what it is.

Anyone who previously relied on a notepad or clipboard will adopt the iPad. Doctors will use the iPad as they move from room to room and interact with patients, teachers will use the iPad as they lecture, coaches will use it as an in game video/scouting tool…think of all the real estate agents and other salesmen who operate at point of sale. Anybody who walks around at work will want an iPad to hold directly in their hands.

I’m not sure if such enthusiasm is warranted, but I do know one thing with a fair amount of confidence: it will be popular at colleges. It will make e-textbooks far more widely used, and will be the best tool that a student or teacher could hope for. I would not be surprised if it is adopted campus-wide at some colleges.

Meanwhile, there’s talk of Apple lowering prices for TV shows to $1 per episode in time for the iPad release. This just makes sense, and not just for the iPad, but in general. $2 for a single TV episode has always been a ludicrous price, and the main reason I don’t even look at their offerings. Almost every TV show becomes available on DVD (and Blu-Ray) soon after the season concludes, usually for a total price that comes to less than $2 per episode (Lost’s Season 5, for example, costs $23.50, about $1.50 per ep.), and is stocked with a plethora of extras, including commentaries, bloopers, and deleted scenes. To pay more for that without any of the extras is just dumb. If the episodes were available via Apple at a reasonable resolution for $1 an episode, it would almost certainly more than double sales–not just drawing in more customers, but getting existing customers to purchase more content.