Announcement.. the wait of the unknown is scary.
For the launch you will know what your are getting
For the launch you will know what your are getting
Doubt we will get an answer to that question at the Keynote. I'd expect us to get told it's faster and have to wait for iFixIt to tear one apart to learn what is actually inside.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)
The announcement because before the keynote you don't know how the iPad will be
The days before the iPad launch wont be agonizing because you can watch the Apple iPad Ad and the keynote the times you want and you don't get bored
Ditto.As much as I want to know what iPad 3 will offer, I'd say launch. IT-IS-DEATH waiting for your product to arrive. Obsessively checking tracking and freaking out because you think it won't arrive on time even though it does every time... that's with me, anyway.
With the announcement of the iPad 3 looming just days away, do you consider that wait more agonizing and painstaking or the actual launch date?
I think I'll have to go with the launch date. Even if all of the speculations were true and Apple souped the iPad 3 up beyond our wildest expectations it's still just a tease. We can only see images and videos of others playing with it, while we still have to wait those extra weeks until we too can get our grubby little hands on it.
I live abroad so the launch date is almost certainly at least 2,5 weeks away, if not longer. I also have voted for the announcement.I voted announcement. The (fairly short?) time between announcement and launch just lets me get more excited about the concrete features Apple tells us about. Waiting for the confirmation or crushing denial of the actual specs is worse for me.
What exactly could Apple get wrong that would make the product "undesirable"? Retina display is almost guaranteed and things like NFC, LTE or Price Drops are on peoples "want" list but it would be understandable if they didn't happen this gen so I think in the end the iPad announcement will be no surprises (with the AppleTV3 announcement being the big story).Announcement.. the wait of the unknown is scary.
For the launch you will know what your are getting
As much as I want to know what iPad 3 will offer, I'd say launch. IT-IS-DEATH waiting for your product to arrive. Obsessively checking tracking and freaking out because you think it won't arrive on time even though it does every time... that's with me, anyway.
Exactly. Last year was hell with the 5PM launch time, no preorders, resellers dominating inventory and 1per customer limitations. I don't mind waiting in line, but I waited in 4AM lines for 5days straight only to be told 15min before opening that "We only got 10 in" or "No Wifi, only Verizon" so the big moment of the announcement will be how they plan on deploying this to customers and if Apple will take advantage of their stellar "In-store reservation" system.Launch day by far. Because your having to plan your strategy for how you will get the iPad. The worst thing is having a well formed plan and then something totally not working out. Like thinking "I'll go at 4AM and wait 6 hours in line" and then you get there at 4AM and theres a huge line that is way larger than the amount of iPads available.
Has anyone wondered if the iPad 3 might NOT be a big launch day product?
With the iPhone then carrying a phone is as important as a wallet so its only a $200 investment and when your contract is up then you're pretty much holding out on upgrading until the new version is out so first day sales are huge.
But with the iPad then we're talking $500 minimum for a "non-essential" device that has already sold into the millions. Are these current iPad 2 owners really itching to drop $500 a year on upgrades or is it just us who get crazy like this?
I'm not downplaying the buzz because Im sure it will be highly publicized. But Im just not sure everyone will feel the "need" to upgrade and the lines might be worth the wait.
(BTW. I think that a quick turnaround from announcement (Wed) to release (Fri) would benefit Apple because the more time you give people to think it through the more people will realize their iPad 2 works just fine)
Because historically Apple upgrades are purchased by people who don't 'need" them.Why are people just now thinking about this?
Because historically Apple upgrades are purchased by people who don't 'need" them.
Looking back then the iPhone 3G -> 3S, iPhone 4 -> 4S and iPad 1 -> iPad 2 were small improvements yet the sales numbers showed that each launch day was bigger than the previous regardless of the economy or need for upgrade. So even though the jump from iPad 2 -> 3 might be bigger than the original iPad upgrade, Im just not sure how high the interest is for new features among regular people who can't tell the difference between VGA/5MP cameras, retina screens or LTE/3G speeds.
I got mine at launch in Vegas and it definitely was a sellout but maybe that's because it's a tourist town. Maybe you benefitted by region because out in SoCal then we had sellouts for days.I politely disagree with you. Did you happen to go to stores on 4s launch day? There were plenty of iPhone 4s at most stores. You could just walk in and buy one. Ironically there were tons of people who preordered online and did not receive their 4s on release day but could walk into their local retailer and buy a 4s on the spot.