iPad Pre-Order: Will You Get One?
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I don’t know about you but I still remember the day I ordered Amazon Kindle 1. I was one of many people who ordered the device as soon as it came out. It’s true that it took Amazon weeks to ship out the device and many of us did not know what exactly we were getting with Amazon Kindle. But the chance to play with a decent e-book reader was too much to resist. Fast forward a couple of years, and we are at the same point again, this time with Apple iPad. Apple iPad is not a pure e-book reader. It does not take advantage of E-ink technology and is certainly not as energy efficient as a Sony Reader or Kindle. Nevertheless, it is expected to outsell Amazon Kindle in a fairly short period of time thanks to the power of Apple’s marketing machine.
With Kindle, we knew we were getting an e-book reader. It was a fairly one-dimensional device designed for those who wanted to move away from paper books to e-books. The iPad is a whole other animal. It’s a multi-purpose device that can be used as an e-book reader, a gaming gadget, or a business management tool. While many are expected to pre-0rder the device today, that seems a bit risky to me. For starters, we don’t really know what we are getting with the iPad. Apple has been secretive about the capabilities and restrictions of the device. The fact that you can only order the WiFi model today is not good news either.
The iPad is expected to provide publishers with a whole new platform for dynamic content and multi-media books. The device is certainly shiny and has the looks. Unfortunately, it seems many early iPad adopters are picking up the device for that reason alone. Quite frankly, pre-ordering a device that we just don’t know too much about this early on is not a smart move. The demand for the device could be so high that some of us may have to wait a few additional weeks to get our hands on it. If you are looking for an e-book reader, chances are you can wait a bit longer just to make sure the iPad is what you are looking for.
Let’s not forget Apple’s track-record either. The iPhone 1.0 was not what I’d call a perfect device. Many glitches were found in the device and some popular features were missing as well. The same can be said about the iPad. We are still not sure whether Apple is going to add a web-cam to the iPad. There are many unanswered questions about Apple’s content partnerships as well. Some of these questions may be answered in the next few weeks, so it may be smart to wait a bit longer to know more about the iPad. If the device is as good as Apple claims it to be, it’ll be worth the wait.
Will you be pre-ordering the iPad? Why or why not?
