Don't make such big assumptions. I, for one, took Tim Cook at his word that when he said "early," he meant it. Maybe not January, but certainly by end of Feb. Otherwise he should have just said "1st half," which is what this is really coming to be it looks like. Winter is "early" in the year. Spring is not.
As I said in an earlier post, Apple shouldn't force it out on a phony time schedule. It needs to work 99% perfect right out of the gate. Cook didn't do the team any favors announcing an overly optimistic release time frame, even a loose one, if there was doubt Apple couldn't meet it.
So why did they bother announcing it so soon? Tim Cook's ego? It certainly didn't stave off buyers from the competition. Seems Apple would have been better off to announce this during or right after CES for a spring launch... like the original iPad. That would have given them more time to get their "s" together, which they clearly need it seems, and still given Ive time to promote it ahead of the launch.
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Silly why? I agree it has flaws like not being a stand alone product or having GPS, but conceptually why is it a silly product?