But I truly believe, besides my Apple fanboy status, that the iPad is a smart decision by Apple to benefit both the MacBook/MacBook Pro and the iPhone/iPod Touch. I, honestly, do not believe Apple cares about the success of the iPad. They are taking this opportunity to research and see how people react and use the technologies and features existing in the iPad. From that research, Apple will (in my opinion) apply the data to their most precious products.

I’m going to run down some of the features of the iPad and how it will benefit both the MacBook and iPhone.

Touch Display

For the first time, Apple has expanded their touch interface to a larger display. LED-backlit, 9.7-inch diagonal, and fingerprint-resistant, the display is attractive. At a 1024×768 resolution at 132ppi (pixels per inch) this display is crisp and clean. But how can the other product benefit?

Users are already using such a display, only on a much smaller scale with the iPhone/iPod Touch. Apple now has the opportunity to see how users handle a larger display and how developers design their apps from a small interface to a larger one.

The interactions and development may be used to provide a touch display on the MacBook. Imagine being able to have the advantages of a powerful laptop and utilize a touch display. Designers, in particular, could really take advantage of a touch display.

What about the iPhone? It already has a touch display. It’s all about scaling. Developers now have an opportunity to see how their users utilize applications on a larger interface and apply that knowledge to the development of apps to use on the iPhone. It is a new challenge for developers to provide a balance because an iPhone app scaled to the size of the iPad isn’t exactly the best thing for every app.

Wireless 3G Advantage

The new “unlimited” plan for only $29.99 per month without any contract is a pretty good deal. Imagine being able to do that on your MacBook. Not only do you have WiFi, but what about those places that don’t provide free WiFi? Having a constant connection almost anywhere is great. Personally, I’d take advantage of this deal (if it was available on the MacBook) and not purchase internet in my home. It would save me a lot of money. I’m never home, though, so I’d probably be one of the few people taking advantage of this offer.

iPhone users benefit. With a larger strain on the 3G network, this could force AT&T to improve their service nationwide by expanding coverage and upholding better and faster connections. Everyone wins (fingers crossed).

Drive Space

I’ve been telling all of my friends who thought the iPad was supposed to replace their laptops are wrong. But, if you really think about it, this may be true in the long run. How many people want a 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB drive as their main drive? You are very limited to the amount of movies and music that we all hoard today.

But, in the future, a 16GB drive might actually be more than enough. With everything moving to the cloud (documents stored on the internet), faster connections, music and movie streaming (Netflix, Pandora), Google Docs, people really don’t need to store anything on their drives.

Especially with an always-on connection (if 3G comes to the MacBook) there will always be access to data.

The iPhone benefits because larger capacity drives aren’t necessary to store music and movies if it is being streamed.

Of course, there are many features to the iPad that will benefit other Apple products. Share your ideas in the comments. And, obviously, this is strictly my opinion.

You can read all about the iPad here.