However, it is also a very special day for another reason: the Apple iSlate (or iPad, Magic Slate, iTablet, or whatever it will be called) is due to be announced!

Trawling the web for the Apple iSlate reveals much rumour and speculation as to the expected design form, price, positioning, connectivity and interface. The key area of agreement seems to settle around the idea of a 10-inch touchscreen based device with 3G connectivity. iSlate.org has catalogued many of the rumours and expectations from the marketplace, as have many other technology sites such as engadget.com, pocket-lint.com, gizmodo.com and macrumors.com.

From a product design and development perspective, the speculative design mock-ups and graphics are hugely interesting. People seem to have taken three different starting points from Apple’s existing product portfolio – the Macbook Pro, the iPhone and the iMac.

• The Macbook Pro angle suggests a dual screen design with touchscreen keyboard running OS X (very unlikely).
• The iPhone angle suggests what amounts to an iPhone on steroids, with enough room to display many more app icons on screen and potentially resolution independent apps (likely).
• The iMac angle suggests a miniaturised iMac design also running a touchscreen version of OS X with either a slide out keyboard, touchscreen keyboard or an additional plugin keyboard and stand (touchscreen keyboard – very likely, additional keyboard – likely, slide out keyboard – very, very unlikely).

Whilst the speculative designs are good, the actual Apple product is likely to innovate across the whole gamut of product purpose, design, interface, application delivery and implementation.

Whatever the iSlate/iPad/Magic Slate/iTablet turns out to be, I expect it to be a product that takes elements of the above and mixes these with entirely new concepts to create a new genre/niche in the same way that the iPhone has. I for one am waiting with baited breath to find out!