The iPhone has one property that improves its keyboard that will presumably be inherited by the iPad: predictive algorithms make "more likely" keys have larger zones, even though the keyboard graphic isn't redrawn, so that if your finger hits an area between two keys, or even slightly onto an adjacent key, the "right" key will be interpreted instead.  (The author also mentions autocorrection, which is not quite the same.)<p>But yeah, it still is just not going to be as good of tactile feedback as an actual keyboard, and virtually impossible to type on without looking at the keys---small hand placement errors will compound without constant feedback and will eventually cause "keyboard drift".<p>(And the most infamous example of a membrane keyboard that I'm aware of is the IBM PCjr... it's certainly the example that I use when I'm explaining to people why touch screens suck for typing.)