I myself compose music and in the entertainment area of life ( on the side )
what im gona do is just get the ARM one , having the big one would be useless
basically:
PC = Composing, editing , MASTERING, even play shows
SLATE = on the go composition , editing
that?s pretty much it, no way in **** i can run all my side programs to master and engineer the sounds. not to mentions I cant carry around my Studio Monitor speakers.lol
If the SLATE is primarily going to be for what you are saying then I don't see how you can argue that it would be right for it to be $500. I can buy a $200 netbook and do on the go composition and editing. So, what else are you going to use it for? Apps? That's what you have a smartphone for.
Also, the argument about Tablet PCs coming out before the iPad: there was. Microsoft defined a Tablet PC in 2001. There were several tablet PCs to come out before the iPad such as the HP tx1000. Why weren't they seen as revolutionary? Because they were just windows running on a screen that you could touch. There wasn't "apps" or anything that made them stand out. Doesn't mean there wasn't a tablet PC before the iPad. So, anyone who says there wasn't is just plain wrong. Now, the reason they call these new devices "slates" is because a tablet pc had a keyboard attached to it, while the slate will not have an attached keyboard.
Also, you were mentioning the ASUS tablet costing $500. The CEO of Nvidia just stated a few days ago that he expects Tegra 3 tablets to cost under $300 by mid-2012. That's a quad-core chip for under $300.
NVIDIA CEO throws Asus under the bus, says tablets could be under $300 soon
Maybe you guys have $500 to spend on whatever, but for me I wouldn't consider one unless I was in the market and I was shopping between a high-end netbook and that.
I like Microsoft's approach to this eco-system and I look forward to the working between a PC, xbox, and WP7 (errr WP8 by that time). However, I don't see the usage of adding a slate in that for $500.