iPad Pre-Orders: 4 Big Reasons to Order Early

An article appeared on the PC World website this week from Galen Gruman entitled “iPad Pre-Orders: For Idiots Only”. The post argued that people pre-ordering the iPad were “foolish” as “no one’s really sure what they’re buying.” Today on iPadTabletPCReview.com I’m going to pick up why this argument is flawed and why pre-ordering the iPad is actually pretty logical.

Courtesy of Apple

To quickly summarise the PC World post, the reasons Galen Gruman called people foolish for pre-ordering the iPad are…

1. Unknown restrictions on capabilities and media access
2. iPad’s hardware isn’t upgradeable
3. It’s got relatively low amounts of memory
4. Its lack of connectors such as USB
5. You’ll be stuck with whatever iTunes-based content locks
6. The first-generation iPod Touch could play only a few sounds and even then only at a whisper, so its calendar alarms and new-email alerts were useless unless you wearing its earphones.

Sure there are some points here but I suspect controversial articles like this from Galen Gruman are a method of getting a lot of links in a short space of time and boosting the PC World search engine ranking. Well I’m sure the strategy worked – it’s just very negative journalism.

This is a one-sided argument, sure people are paying a lot of money for a device they haven’t had an opportunity to hold but this launch is different.

1. The iPad is effectively a large iPod Touch. The iPod Touch is a tried and tested device that people love and reviews abound on its pros and cons. Given the iPad is pretty much the same thing but bigger, you know what you’re getting, it can only do more that the iPod Touch. Of course the iPad is more expensive but it’s going to be capable of doing everything an iPod touch can do and more. You’re paying for the larger screen and the upgraded components behind it such as the processor.
2. Never has so much been written about a device before it’s launched with patents, adverts and user agreements trawled through to find every last detail of what this thing will do.
3. We already have glowing reviews from trusted industry journalists who got their hands on it on when it was originally announced. All reviews I’ve seen from anyone who’s actually played with the device are positive. Let me know if you’ve seen one that isn’t!
4. It’s from Apple. This isn’t a fly-by-night company with no history of delivering fantastic products – they’re folks who know what they’re doing. They’ve already produced devices that are virtually identical to the iPad but smaller.

Inevitably of the 120,000 iPads that are alleged to have been sold on the first day of pre-orders, there will be a significant number of people who have bought in the hope of selling it quickly at a profit due to the likely supply shortage in the initial period.

At the end of the day, the iPad has caught people’s imagination. Early adopters want to get their hands on it as they already love their iPhone and iPod Touch – this is the same but bigger! These Apple and tech enthusiasts don’t want to risk a launch where there’s a short supply and it then takes a month or so before the next wave become available. Let’s face it, the value of these things isn’t going to ditch price in the first month, if people decide it isn’t for them I’m sure there will be plenty of people who’ll take it off their hands.

I live in the UK so I haven’t had the option yet to pre-order my iPad but I will as soon as I can.

Let me know your thoughts on this subject by posting in the comments.