"It does not:
Do multitasking
Have a camera - which many netbooks for the same price do have - webcam for Skype would be good for me.
Have Flash - this is the killer for me. It is not an alternative for a netbook. There are ever more websites that use Flash, I notice it a lot when using my iPhone."
It's pretty much a bigger iPod Touch, so it has most of the same limitations.
It does multitask, you can play music from iTunes and surf the web. However Apple don't allow 3rd party applications to multitask, so you can't play music from Spotify and surf the web at the same time.
Apple is not a big believer in netbooks, they seem to see them as underpowered laptops. So Apple are going for something "new" here and aren't fussed about trying to do what a netbook can do.
As to getting that functionality later, I'd be surprised.
Apple lock out things like multitasking and flash for a number of reasons, including security, stability and control of the device. They've also locked them out right since the very start of the iPhone and haven't yet seen fit to change their minds.
If they allowed Flash then anyone could write an app for the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad without having to go through the Apple approval process and the App Store.
So Apple loose the control, and depending on your point of view on what they're up to either loose the ability to make money or loose the ability to keep the platform nice, easy and reliable for people to use.
Personally I'm reasonably keen, an iPod Touch has radically changed how I use the internet. A lot of what i do is looking at maps, photos, quick wikipedia checks, train times or film times. The iPod is great for that, in the time it takes to boot up a laptop (even an Apple laptop which boots much quicker than a Windows one) I can be over and done with the Touch. A bigger version with speakers is rather tempting.