I am as enthusiastic as the next person when it comes to Apple products, I like the quality, the appearance and the consistency of the interfaces. I see that over 100,000 people had pre-ordered the iPad during the first week that pre-ordering was available. This seems to be a small number, which makes sense.
I find it strange that anyone would buy any product without first trying it out at the store which might explain the small numbers. I also find it strange that people would not bide their time and opt for the Wi-Fi plus 3G version when you can purchase 3G service by the month for as little as $15. I forsee a number of eBay sales coming up as people change their minds. It's $130 more but seems like a no-brainer to include the 3G if you're going to spend $500 at a minimum anyway.
How well the iPad is going to work is an unknown (response, interworking, networking). Since the entry price for a WFi + 3G is $630 (plus case, Plus dock) I think I'll definitely wait until this group (and others) iron out all the bugs and Apple decides what to do about the feature set for version 2. I would certainly like to see a better battery life, a flash card slot and a camera at a minimum unless the price of your used iPad with all its patches on eBay gets down to $250 - $300. I'm still excited about the product but I need to feel how heavy it is and how well it performs before I commit more than $500. I'll take a trip to the Apple store on 4th April ( well maybe a week later than that) and give it a workout.
Good luck to everyone who buys version 1. I would be interested to hear an objective opinion after someone has theirs in hand.