Rob Foster shares three stories about iPad-excitement from people he least expected to even know about it:

The Grandma:

My mother-in-law walked in the door the day of the keynote and the first thing out of her mouth was “Did you see that new Apple iPad? That looks like it would work for me. Would that work for me?”

The Technophobe:

I told him about the new iPad and his eyes grew wide. He blurted out “Wait, are you talking about an iPhone but with a bigger screen? A regular sized computer THIS easy to use? $15 a month for internet anywhere? When can I buy one?”

The Luddite:

“Dude, I think I want to get one of those Apple tablets for my business.” “Really?” I said. “Yeah, I went and looked at them and they seem really easy to use. I think it would work great for showing potential customers my work and for doing bids on.”

If these three people are any indication of a wider trend, this could be really big. Although some geeks are complaining about what the new device doesn’t do, there are many more luddites, technophobes, and grandmas who are excited by what it can do – more easily than a traditional computer – for them. Dan Moren of Macworld calls this a third revolution in computing:

For Apple, it’s not about killing off tinkerers, but ensuring that not everybody who wants to use a computer has to be a tinkerer.

Technology is like politics, in that you have to go outside your traditional base to make big things happen. I think Apple is reaching out, perhaps farther beyond their base than ever before, with the iPad.

Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images