iPad: Woot woot or womp womp?

Apple products never fail to draw crowds on their release dates. The iPad was no exception: More than 300,000 iPads were purchased Saturday through in-store transactions and pre-ordering.

In addition, more than 1,000,000 applications and 250,000 electronic books were also purchased off iTunes. Apple also helped promote their product by offering downloads of more than 30,000 free e-books.

Because of the iPad’s size, certain applications are more enjoyable than on any of Apple’s previous iPod products. Imagine games, movies and television on a larger screen.

Keynote, Pages and Numbers from Apple’s iWork suite are also available in Application form allowing users to work on slideshows, spreadsheets and word-processor documents on the go.

It will be interesting to see the long-term effects of the iPad on the economy. How will this product affect the publishing industry, bookstores, journalists and authors?

A USC professor recently made a good point about the advent of the iPad: He said that the majority of the features offered on the iPad were already available on multiple other pieces of Apple hardware he already owns.

Is the ability to fit books, papers and comics into one (somewhat) manageably sized piece of equipment worth the $499 price tag?

Will students soon be carrying their iPads and Kindles to class instead of a collection of bulky textbooks? If so, how would this have an effect on our Student Bookstore?

As much as I adore my three iPods, Macbook and iPhone, I can’t say that I am going to rush off to purchase the iPad, but I won’t rule it out as a future investment. I’m sure within the next 12 months the second generation will be out anyways: Why not wait?