Apple’s hugely hyped iPad “tablet” turned the whole retail world upside down as it made its way into hungry consumer homes this weekend. There is no denying how popular the device is in the media, and though everyone is claiming it to be either the next big thing or an ultimate failure, I am curious as to whether it will be a viable gaming device, major sales or not.

There are many reasons as to why the iPad will succeed and also many reasons why it will fail. If we look at the facts, it is pretty obvious to anyone, except maybe the Apple fanboys, that the ipad is just an over sized iPod touch. This helps and hurts it in different ways. On the one hand, this limited technology forces game developers to sacrifice their game in order to adapt to the hardware they are working with. Sometimes this can be a good thing, opening up the platform for simple, casual games. Another is the simplicity and ease of use we are all too familiar with after experiencing the Apple store first hand for the last few years. The problem? Why wouldn’t you just play them on your iPod touch?

If you are an Apple geek, you most likely already have either a iPhone or an iPod Touch, so you aren’t going to be carrying around your iPad. If you actually do carry around your iPad, will you really pull that thing out on the bus to play a casual game, or will you just pull out your iPhone?

Let’s say you are at home sitting in your living room. Your brand new iPad is sitting on the coffee table. Great! you feel like playing a game. Why would you pick up your completely underpowered iPad when you could just power on your Xbox360 or P33 or Wii and play the same games on there in full HD on a bigger screen? Not only that, you probably don’t have to pay as much money for them on the home consoles as you would in the app store.

If you think about it, unless the iPad is your only technological device in the house, there really is no use for it as a gaming platform. I am not arguing its function as a E-reader or web browser or a device in general, just trying to say that as a gaming console, it doesn’t really have a niche. So beware! Before you find yourself five hundred dollars poorer and you got yourself a nice big iPod that sits on your coffee table just waiting for that Bejeweled game you probably could enjoy more on a different platform, think it through. Don’t let the media make you buy something you don’t really need. Then again, we do live in America…