Nicolas Hayek was one of those people that I admire a lot. One of those people that are determined, extremely passionate and crazy enough to take on big challenges. He was clearly thinking differently. He saved the Swiss watch industry, and revolutionized it at the same time with Swatch. He was also part of this crazy project called the Smart car when it started in 1994. Nicolas passed away today at the age of 82, and will always remains a model to me.

Photo: Nicolas Hayek was known to wear up to four watches on each arm.

While waiting in line in front of the San Francisco Apple Store, to get the iPad on Saturday, I’ve been interviewed by a New York Times journalist. I made it into the final article both on NYTimes.com as well as in the paper edition.

Mathieu Thouvenin, 26, was born the year Apple introduced the Macintosh but predicted that the iPad would be just as revolutionary.

“I think all PCs are ultimately going to be like this,” he said, citing the tablet’s touch-screen capability. “I think I’m going to use the iPad at home on my couch instead of my laptop.”

Since the introduction of the iPad on January 27th, we heard a lot of opinions on the web from various people, bloggers and journalists. I will be waiting in line at the Apple Store next Saturday to get my hands on one, and before I can do that, I'd like to explain why I think the iPad is really a revolutionary product, and has the potential the change the way we think about personal computing, for ever.