There has been speculation galore over the past few months as to what Apple’s next big announcement at todays event would be. Many have said that it could be the next iPhone (in hindsight, this was probably a long shot since the iPhone 3GS is still pretty new), and many speculated a multi-touch tablet. Well for those of you who were of the latter opinion, a congratulations are in need.

Yes, as many of you now know, Apple today announced the launch of it’s latest product – the iPad.

This device is almost identical to the iPhone, except that it’s a few times bigger! It boasts:

• a 9.7 inch screen with a resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels
• a 1GHz processor
• a 10 hour battery life
• Accelerometer
• Ambient Light Sensor
• Wi-Fi, and most interesting of all (in my opinion!)
• a Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating

Now, if your anything like me, that last one will have you jumping for joy. I absolutely hate the amount of fingerprints and smudges my iPhone screen collects.

But wait, the good news doesn’t end there – oh no! The iPad is also compatible with almost 140,000 applications already in the App Store! That’s right, the iPad will actually run iPhone applications – either in their native size or stretched to fill the screen. Not only can the iPad run existing App Store applications, but Apple has announced that iPad specific applications are in development using the new iPad SDK (accessible to existing iPhone Developers now!).

Though the iPad does look like a great device, does it really have a place in the home, at work or on the road? Can it find it’s niche between the iPhone and Macbook, or is three really a crowd? Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

With all that said, the new Apple iPad will be available in the coming months and will retail at $499 for the cheapest model.