Terrible planning! How could that possibly be in Apple's interest? Oh wait: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influence_Science_and_Practice" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influence_Science_and_Practice</a><p>"""
People tend to want things as they become less available. This has led advertisers to promote goods as "limited availability", or "short time only".<p>It has also been shown that when information is restricted (such as through censorship), people want the information more and will hold that information in higher regard.<p>Items are also given a higher value when they were once in high supply but have now become scarce."""
I beg to differ with the hype that 'everyone is getting one'. I know LOADS of people (tech people, even ObjC devs) who are not getting one - either they don't want one from the first production run or they don't want one at all.<p>I'm building an iPad-orientated site for launch but I'm happy using the SDK and don't have any interest in actually owning one.
Stores will still have extra stock for people who didn't reserve one (just called Apple Store SF, though they didn't know how many they'd have). Also, Best Buy is apparently going to be selling them on launch day, though that isn't confirmed yet: <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/27/leaked-image-says-ipad-lands-at-best-buy-on-launch-day/" rel="nofollow">http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/27/leaked-image-says-ipad-la...</a>
I want an iPad for browsing leisurely from my couch or bedroom. I don't want to see web advertisements though, and I won't be able to install Firefox + adblock or some kind of ad filtering proxy on the machine. I suppose I could configure a transparent proxy on my network, but that sounds like a pain. For me the closed nature of the device might be a deal breaker.
I reserved two -- the first being a 16 and then I thought maybe I'd like a 32, so I reserved that last night -- I'm only getting one, so someone will be lucky.<p>Its wild though, the 32 is about 635 with tax + 43 for a case + 76 for apple car, that is a good 750 for the thing.
It certainly seems that the iPad will be a hit. I'm planning to spend most of April 3rd at the Apple store in my mall. I can't wait to just touch one!<p>But I'm not going to buy one until the 3G version is out later in April. (The cheap 3G service is just too compelling to pass up.)
The best estimates peg 250,000 sold to date:<p><a href="http://aaplmodel.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">http://aaplmodel.blogspot.com/</a><p>Today's news would seem to validate this - given a few weeks back they estimated that preliminary run would be limited to 300,000:<p>"An unspecified production problem at the iPad's manufacturer, Hon Hai Precision, will likely limit the launch region to the US and the number of units available to roughly 300K in the month of march, far lower than the company's initial estimate of 1,000K units."<p><a href="http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?threadid=107425" rel="nofollow">http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?threadid=10742...</a><p>Assuming that means 50k in the retail channel, should be interesting.