The iPad could replace your calendar, address book, and notepad among other things.

It’s clear to us already that Apple’s iPad is sparking controversy over just how useful a device it is. Most consider the product a consumer device, but we’ve had the opportunity to use it and find it pretty useful for a small business as well. I’ll try to ignore our infatuation with the intrinsic, pleasureful experience of having photo albums, movies, and the web at your fingertips and focus on the cold, hard, features you’re likely to use in a business environment. I’ll also just make a note that we aren’t comparing the iPad to any computer or smart phone. This is a new animal by itself, and the closest competitor in price and functionality would have to be a mini-laptop, or netbook.

Let’s get the pricing out of the way. The iPad is not going to replace your desktop or laptop computer. It doesn’t have the processing capability or the hard drive capacity to be an all-in-one workstation. The cheapest model will set you back $499 for the 16GB Wi-Fi version. The most expensive is the $829 64GB Wi-Fi + 3G version, which could use an AT&T 3G data plan to surf the web outside of Wi-Fi hotspots for $30/mo for the unlimited data plan, $15/mo for the 250MB plan.

Here’s what you’ll actually use the iPad for:

1) Sharing images & websites. Remember, we are talking about business use. The iPad is the easiest to use, most versatile way for you to display images, documents, and websites to your clients and put it in their hands. Forget lugging around a laptop and a projector, or printing off paper copies of a presentation. Carry two or three iPads into a conference room, load up your Keynote presentation or export your Powerpoint presentation to images or video, and let them browse. If you want to show them something on the web, or designs you’ve created and exported as JPEGs, even better. You wouldn’t hand a client your laptop and expect them to browse your folders themselves, but the iPad is different. Anybody with fingers can use it, and more importantly, WANT to use it. You aren’t limited to images either. You can use Apple’s Pages to display, edit and export word-processing documents, including compatibility with Microsoft Word.

2) Calendar – Apple’s iCal is improved for the iPad and easy to manage and schedule events.

3) Contacts – A much improved contacts program which allows you to put an image with names, and set reminders saved to your calendar.

4) Mail & Internet – Without going into much detail, the iPad makes surfing the internet and checking your emails as fun as a ferrari would make your daily work commute.

5) Notes – One of my favorite features on the iPhone, just got easier and better.

6) Maps – Using Google’s Maps on the iPhone is fine as long as you aren’t trying to show somebody else directions. With the iPad’s larger screen, showing somebody directions is easier than if you had a physical map in your hand.

7) Apps – Of course, the huge selling feature is Apple’s App Store.

Support – The iPad features Microsoft Exchange compatbility and supports most VPNs.

Salespeople who travel might enjoy the ability to make presentations on the road, and easily email documents to/from work. Essentially the iPad is a larger iPhone (without the phone or camera or built-in speakers) with a usable keyboard. If you need a small, versatile product for emailing, web browsing, presentations and on-the-go word processing, without the necessity for multi-tasking, web video conferencing, or Flash support, then the iPad is your device. I would recommend, however that if you would benefit from having a camera for video-conferencing, consider waiting for the V2 iPad.