Despite the media frenzy and public excitement about the unveiling of Apple iPad tablet-style computer, with the news of the unveiling of the device making it to the front page in newspapers around the globe, the iPad’s chances of actual success largely depend on its ability to prove itself to be much more than merely an overgrown iPod Touch equipped with a digital bookstore!

Going by a February 3 research note by analyst Charles Wolf, of New York’s Needham & Co., the success or failure of the much-hyped iPad will come not from the device on its own, but from what users can practically do with it.

As such, Wolf added that the device should be capable of handling content that would “otherwise provide an inferior experience on smaller devices, or more traditional products,” such as laptops and smartphones.

It might just be possible that the iPad might be a ‘hard to sell’ Apple device – more so as the key challenge that the iPad faces is building a new market rather than improving an established one. It has to make its way between the iPod Touch that boasts e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter; and the popular Amazon Kindle e-reader.

However, the form in which the iPad has been unveiled does not appear to accentuate its chances of bringing about any transformation in the customers’ day-to-day life, the way the iPod or iPhone have done!