Please let us know if you get anywhere.
The apple community boards suggest that no-one in apple is admitting to a problem.
SWMBO's turns on, the apple in the centre is bright, as though it wants to do something, then the apple goes dull and it won't start. I've waited an hour and it won't start. I then have to press home and start buttons together for 10 secs, and it turns off. Then, turn it on again, and if I'm lucky, it starts. As you say, the actual starting is much, much slower. The slide, once it eventually appears, can take ages to actually want to slide.
As I said before, it turns itself on and off with no commands from us.
I've given up with the apple community boards, as no-one seems to be getting any satisfaction.
SWMBO really liked this ipad in the early days. Now it is as bad as early windoze products.
No wonder apple are firing so many senior bods. This software is much worse than Vista. Our family has 2 Vista laptops. At least they both work. (Having said that, Mrs Gates' XP updates recently killed off one of our machines - at least the ipad is only half dead)