I don't consider myself a fanboy but can you honestly believe this poll is really an accurate reflection of the real world experience of the millions of iPad purchasers? Such a conclusion would be niave.
It's a given that macrumors is a complaint-centric site and that polls here tend to skew negative.
However, as someone who has been paying very close attention to these threads, I find it difficult to reconcile how...
1. My iPad 1 and 2 required zero exchanges. Every iPad 2 I've seen has had an evenly lit and evenly colored screen.
2. I have been through 6 iPad 3s, and the current one is moderately better, color/lighting/viewing angle wise, but no where near as nice as my iPad 2.
3. I have observed countless images posted here of the same issues, most labeled as bad iPads, but some labled as good.
4. I have seen very few images here of evenly lit/colored screens. I can think of maybe 3. If there were more photographic evidence of good screens, instead of unreliable verbal assertions of "perfect" screens, accompanied by incessant name calling, I would be much more inclined to assume I've simply been very unlucky this time.
5. I have personally inspected nearly 50 iPad 3s in the wild, from a wide variety of sources, and all but 2 or 3 exhibited the same issues I've seen described and experienced myself.
6. On 2 separate occasions at an Apple store, having shown 2 different iPads to 4 different employees, 2 employees could see the issues I was complaining about; 2 could not. Clearly these screen issues are obvious to some, and non existant to others, which would account for a large number of people claiming the rest of us are crazy.
To my logic, this a job for Occam's Razor...i.e.. the simplest explanation is usually the correct one...that there are problems with the majority of iPad screens. Some people can not see them. That does not mean they are not there.
To my thinking, it seems far more a stretch of logic to imagine a scenario in which 45 out of 50 iPads have issues, but that those issues are only seen in iPads that landed in NYC, because that is the singular trait that iPads I've inspected share. And that's if you only consider my personal experience and don't include similar reports from several others.
I could be wrong, but in the 5 years I've been on MR, this is the first time I've seen people reporting returns/exchanges beyond 2 or 3. For that to coincide with my personal experience of being unable to purchase one that doesn't exhibit these issues seems like a long shot, and yet it is so. Add to that coincidence that this is the largest release of any iPad yet, and that it's a new screen technology which may or may not have been perfected before release, and you have the makings of a widespread issue, whether or not everyone is sensitive to it.
Also, the assertion that people who say their screens are good are just ignorant and know no better is patronising.
Certainly no more patronising than the assertion that people with complaints are OCD.
There may be some issues with some screens but this ridiculous conclusion that between 50% - 100% of all iPads are faulty is just fanciful.
Given the variety of factories producing the iPad, and the massive quantity produced, there is no one person on the planet who knows what they all look like, screen wise. So to claim that any percentage of them is either defective or not is a total guess by the likes of us.
One thing that can be inferred from this poll is that people who have never returned or exchanged an iPad 3 very likely have experience with only 1 sample. People returning 2 or more have at least double the data points. My own experience is that 90% of 50 iPads I've seen exhibit screen issues. The next guy with 1 "perfect" iPad is hardly a comparison by which to judge the entire lot of iPads in the wild.
