Couldn't Resist

Well I held out for four days, but yesterday the hype won out and I got my iPad.  Maybe it was the combination of being in New York, and going past the amazing 5th Avenue store, or the endless articles and coverage.  That store is open 24 hours a day and is swarming with knowledgeable and efficient staff -- I was in and out in 10 minutes despite the fact that the store was packed.

Daniel Lyons summed it up well in his piece in Newsweek:  "Buy into the World According to Steve, and you're making a Faustian bargain -- you sacrifice freedom for the sake of a lovely device that (mostly) works just the way it's supposed to, eliminating the headaches and confusion that most tech products bring with them."  He goes on to list all of the things the iPad will not do (like flash).

Steve Jobs has done it again and he should get most of the credit -- but the conditions that serve as the backdrop for his success were not created by Steve, but by the rest of the industry.