Apple Thoughts: Is the iPad Eating the PC?

"Nearly a year ago, I predicted in my Computerworld column that Apple's iPad would not only eat into netbook sales, but sales of laptops and even desktop PCs. It was an unpopular prediction. If you look at the 300+ comments attached to that piece, you'll see that the majority of commenters at the time thought I was crazy, stupid or both."

But now, those same commenters must be eating a little crow as evidenced by numerous reports over the last week or two about how indeed the iPad has been eating into PC sales. Or at least that is the correlation that is being put forth. Of course correlation doesn't automatically mean causation, but coincidence is rather striking don't you think? And the author goes into some of the reasons he believes that Apple is "setting the stage" for the decline of the PC, and makes some very good points in my opinion. Specifically the fact that Apple is getting people used to how they have set up their infrastructure (App Store, multi-touch gestures, etc) as well as getting the iPad into the hands of the consumer first, forcing all the others to play catch up. Interesting reading in my opinion, but what are your thoughts?