Sales people need time to familiarise with the device beforehand.
I need to bug the Apple contact for my work. It would be nice to convince them that we are the place to test iPads in elementery education. And by test I mean they give us like 24 to make a classroom set .
But ya the do need to give the Apple store face folks time on them before preorders and the final release. I'd expect to see display units out on the floor in key locations come pre-order time. Let people play with guidance and the for the floks that have the cash, impulse order.
I wish my teacher would do that for my class..not in elementary but still it would be nice. I use these old microsoft computers from like 1985..