If he's been eying an iPad, the TAB will disappoint. They are night and day and even with a few slight negatives, the iPad beats the TAB hands-down. The screen is literally twice as large on the iPad which alone makes it much more useable.

I'm a techie. I like to be connected everywhere I go. I have a BlackBerry and had the original iPhone for a while. That being said, I can't justify the cost of 3G access on these devices. I spend so little time in non-Wifi places and the few times I am, I can live without the connectivity. It's just not worth the cost to me (keep in mind, it will cost at LEAST $20/month additional on top of the device and that's only the low-end 1GB/month plan--that's $240 in a year). Taking that out, it eliminates any advantage the TAB has.

I can tell you the novelty has not worn off on the iPad for my wife. She uses it daily from the couch to do email/web surfing/etc. She doesn't really read, so I can't speak for that, but the novelty of my NOOK hasn't worn off me, so I doubt the iPad would fare differently if I used it for reading.

A lot of it's just personal preference, but I can tell you after playing with both (I develop software for both), I much prefer the iPad.