I've had an iPad 2 for a couple of months now and have mixed feelings about it.
It's great for leisure - the odd game, watching a TV programme on the go (train, airline etc), checking the odd email etc. One of the best things about the iPad is its facility to control your B&O audio equipment. I have all my music stored on an external Time Capsule hard drive. The iPad enables me to sit at my desk, pick a song (from the external hard drive) or album, select my AirPlay speakers (BL3s) and stream audio, controlled via the iPad.
It's almost like a mini Encore, with the advantage that it supports all the Apple compressed/uncompressed formats, too. I have it in a little cradle next to my desk and it's like a portable Encore you can take with you. Plus you can stream audio to multiple AirPlay devices or even another computer.
The downside is that it really is no laptop replacement. I've tried taking it to London on a couple of occasions and I found the email client too slow, the web browser not good enough to do product demos and so on. It's more of a device that compliments my laptop, than replaces it. Perhaps this might change when iOS 5 comes out and/or they improve the mail, but I find it too slow at this point.