Buying into Apple’s Unseen and Unknown iPad

How often do you buy a product before you or anyone you know have seen it?

Normally, when you buy something you see it on a shelf, you get to manhandle it, play with it, test it, drive it, heck at grocery stores they even let you taste food before you commit to buying it.

There have been nearly 200,000 people who have preordered the Apple iPad, they haven’t placed their hands on it, they haven’t seen it in ‘person’, it’s unlikely that someone they know has recommended one to them because there isn’t one to recommend. In fact, there are those who suggest not buying one until you know what it does do.

At Apple’s keynote unveiling of the iPad there were what, 400 people? Most of these people got to try out the iPad there and then. 400 people out of 200,000 isn’t a lot at all.

Even now, there are previously unknown features coming to light and still a lot of questions yet to be answered.

But still, hundreds of thousands of people have spent between $500 and $900 or more on a product that hasn’t yet hit the market.

So, why? are we all crazy?

I’ve heard it said that Apple isn’t selling so much a product, they’re selling more of an experience. This is true – when you turn on an Apple computer, you know what it’s going to do. When you pick up an iPod or iPhone you’ll know how to use it.
When you pick up an iPad, the idea is that you’ll know what to expect and how to use it. Anything that the iPad does that isn’t… iPod-ish but iPad-ish will be nothing more than a pleasant surprise, a bonus.

Yes, I have an iPad on the way. It’s a 16GB, 3G Version. I figure that even if it is just a huge iPod/iPhone, that’ll be enough for me. Anything else is gravy.

What are your thoughts? have you ordered one? did you have second thoughts when you realized how little you know about what you bought?

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[cb type=”Company”]Apple[/cb]