The iPad 2 is Totally Great! ...Except for Music Subscription Services

If you've been milling around SXSW, you can't help but bask in the sleekness of the iPad 2. Apple even set up a pop-up store in Austin to cater to tech-savvy, moneyed attendees, and what a great move that was. But the latest craze goes far beyond Austin city limits, and bullish estimates are already pegging iPad 2 sales north of 2 milion.

This is looking like a repeat of the iPhone, and that means continued dominance of the all-important app market. It also reinforces Apple's extremely powerful gatekeeper position, and its power to utterly control the fate of numerous music startups and services. “Don't get me wrong, [Apple] won't keep 90 percent of the tablet market," Wall Street Journal gadget guru Wall Mossberg recently told Charlie Rose. “There are 82 other tablets being made, and naturally that's going to take some of the share."

But the app race is also considerably lopsided, and this could take a long time to equalize. Mossberg noted that the iPad already has 350,000 apps, compared to 150,000 for second-place Android. But 65,000 of the iPad apps are optimized for the iPad screen and functionality, while Android has less than 100 customized versions in its infant stages. “Everyone's trying to catch up, is what's going on."