Pre-Ordering, Waiting in Line or Waiting for iPad V2?

You can’t be on the Internet the last few days without stumbling across the news that Apple has given a firm ship date for the iPad.

Apple’s site:

On March 12, US customers can pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple’s online store (www.apple.com) or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store.
Pricing & Availability: iPad will be available in Wi-Fi models on April 3 in the US for a suggested retail price of $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB. The Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available in late April for a suggested retail price of $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

Just after this announcement, there seems to be more comments about waiting for Version 2 of the hardware than over the last few weeks. Those are interesting comments… maybe they show a want and an excuse to put off the outlay of cash for a year.

Excuses aside, the folks that should buy an iPad are those that can really use it. If you can’t imagine a world with it in it, wait for now. It will come as others integrate it into their day, the path forward will be clearer.

The idea of a version 2 makes one think about what is missing in the current version. As we learned from the iPhone, we may not have the imagination to guess correctly. We may think of features we would want to make the device ‘perfect’ but does those features make it limited or go in the wrong direction of the future of a fully connected tablet. There has been a lot of noise from early adopters over the last few years when a second version comes out with things that ‘just didn’t make it into the first version’. More and more people will stop buying any initial release if they get zapped time after time. Should manufactures wait till the product is right before they release or is it that they learn how first buyers use their products to add what is really needed.

Are you a person that has a world already outlines with the iPad in it? Will you be waiting in line day one? Having not pre-ordered via Apple.com for a in-store pickup… will we get to go to the front of the line? Will be get stoned by those still waiting in line?

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