On Saturday afternoon I stopped by the Apple store on Bay Street in Emeryville, CA to check out the iPad.  Outside there were 2 lines. One line was for people who wanted a “demo” or needed anything else in the store.  The other line was for people “ready to buy”.  As a steady stream of customers walked out the door (most of which were carrying white bags) they were met with cheers and applause from store employees as if they were celebrities.  At this point I was intrigued.  I normally walk away in situations like this but the fact Apple had a line just to see the device I admit, made it incredibly desirable.   Make no mistake.   This is a deliberate and carefully orchestrated marketing campaign from the king of all hype machines.  Flashbacks of the Cabbage Patch doll craze during the 80′s flashed in my mind.  It didn’t matter what they were selling.  The atmosphere plus the fear of running out hits the buy switch in people’s minds.  Luckily for me the line was short and I eventually got a demo of the iPad from a kid who looked way too young to work there.  What did I think?  The product is exactly as I expected and no more.  As someone who loves gadgets I can definitely see myself using it.   However it’s not attached to something I need every day (say a phone) and therefore I consider it purely a luxury device, and for such devices I always wait.  Here’s 5 reasons why you should too:

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Now that a week has gone by since our initial disappointment of Apple’s tablet device,  and after listening to countless discussions about how Apple’s blown it, I’ve come to a few conclusions .  First there was no way Apple could have possibly lived up to expectations. In many ways the iPad has become the victim of it’s own hype.  If the tablet rumor was never officially leaked, I wonder what people’s reactions might have been. Secondly there IS a market for a device like this, although nobody knows how large it is.  I can see those utilizing home automation software on the ipod/iphone jumping to this device,  allowing them to see an entire outline of their home on a single screen.  I can see someone replacing their Amazon Kindle for a full color Apple tablet that allows them to check email and browse the web.  I can see gadget-geeks buying it simply because it looks cool.  How many of these people are willing to shell out at least $499 remains to be seen but nobody can doubt the potential in a device like this is huge. Right now people point to the lack of Adobe Flash and multitasking as huge minuses, but once those workarounds come into place like HTML 5 and H264 streaming the iPad makes for a compelling device.  It might not gain real market share until these problems get addressed along with a price drops, but neither did the ipod or iphone either.  Until then we’re going to pass on the iPad and continue to watch it’s development which should be an interesting story indeed.

With Apple’s much rumored “tablet” announcement just 2 days away online hype is at a feverish pitch.   So high in fact, there’s a good chance that whatever is unveiled on Wednesday will be a huge disappointment.  What’s interesting to me is everyones so focused on the hardware side, they could be missing the real story which is content deals.  There’s no doubt Apple’s tablet WILL be a beautiful piece of hardware but without good content it’s about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.  So what kind of  deals can we expect? For one expect magazine and newspaper subscriptions to jump on board making full use a gorgeous OLED display. For movies and television content you have to remember Steve Jobs is closely tied with Disney and Netflix’s recent fallout with the Micky Mouse company is suspicious timing.  A subscription based all-you-can-eat service would be killer and could potentially make this tablet (and the Apple TV) compelling.  Bottom line is Jobs wants this tablet to do for video what the ipod did for music.   Whether or not this device will succeed will depend largely on the content and whether or not Apple has the clout to give people what they want.

Our Predictions for Wed:

Tablet:

9-11″ OLED screen, built in camera, multi-touch display with new gestures, WIFI, possibly include Intel’s new Wireless Display Technology. $599 price.  New Apps and Groundbreaking content deals.

iphone 4.0:

Updated gestures found in the tablet added in OS4.  Background apps finally a reality but limited to a handful at a time.   Verizon Announcement.

Macbook

Minor update including I5 CPU’s

ipod Touch:

Camera