During one of the most watched television shows of the year, the Oscars awards presentation, Apple aired the first of, presumably, many iPad commercials. The advertisement is stylized in the manner of many recent Apple commercials, with rock music and minimalist backgrounds.

Apple has chosen to highlight the iPad’s “couch-potato” functionality. All of the actors in the 30-second clip appear to be at home and perform the iPad’s multimedia, internet, and e-book/written content applications. Apple is going after consumer media, while Microsoft’s Courier seems to be reaching out to the business oriented. In hardware, the conceptual Courier has greater potential, but until it is priced and launched, Apple has first crack at the market.