There are three things in that concept.
1) White. Personally I hate that. The white really accentuates the thickness of the bevel. I agree that the bevel needs to be that thick in order to get a good thumb grip on the device without pressing the screen (I often hold my device with just one hand in the middle of the bottom edge so my thumb is taking most of the force (torque) when holding the device and needs a good grip) but they certainly don't want to visually emphasise the thickness of the bevel.
2) The iPhone4-like flat front and back sandwiched in a metal band. I really like this (much discussed already) concept and hope that the next iPad does this. There is less wasted volume in an essentially rectangular design so it could be slightly thinner while maintaining the same battery volume.
3) The choice of material for the flat back. Although most people just assume that it would be glass because that is how the iPhone 4 is, there's no reason why it has to be. The antennae would be on the outside so it doesn't need to be RF-permeable so a decent quality carbon fibre would look nice, be massively durable (F1 drivers get out of their cars and walk away after 150 mph crashes partly thanks to carbon fibre monocoques) and be lighter than aluminium.
If it was black, with a carbon fibre or similar back, then it should be lighter and thinner than the current iPad and look good; I'd want one.
- Julian