Apple isn’t taking pre-orders for the iPad. Seriously?
01/28/2010
I found it really odd yesterday when the Apple website and Store didn’t go down like they usually do whenever Apple makes an announcement. It’s normal operating procedure to update the sites with the new goods and then let people order said new goods. So, I would assume that capitalizing on such buzz, PR, marketing, and the deluge of tweets and blog posts would be a no-brainer; I couldn’t even count the number of tweets I saw fly by saying that they were ready to pull out credit cards and run it.
So why not let people buy in when they were so primed and before the nay-sayers had time to debunk the device? From Apple’s own iPad introduction email:
“This device has not yet been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission. This device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, until authorization is obtained.”
Now my only question is why didn’t they get it authorized in time? I doubt they did it by choice as it’s not like there weren’t enough leaks, one more wouldn’t have hurt. Another possibility is that their internal deliverable timelines were so tight that they didn’t have the time. Having gone through CE product development and launches during my Sooloos days, albeit on a much smaller scale and with far fewer moving parts, I can easily understand how that could come to pass.
Anyway, now we get to look at the iPad micro-site while we wait for the online frenzy to start again when the order taking opens up, and then have the privilege of buying our SuperPods.