Ok, conspiracy theory? Not really, but it made for a good title, haha. Here’s what I think…

The iPad (the January demo) isn’t meant for us everyday consumers at all. It’s targeted at schools. I read this blog post today from TUAW and it kind of sealed my theories that I was developing in my absent mind. We have all been asking three major questions about the iPad, right?

1. Why no iSight?
2. Why no Multitasking?
3. Why no Flash?

I will attempt to answer 2 out of three of these questions (cuz flash just needs to go anyway IMHO). If you were Apple, you might think that you need to sell as many iPads a humanly possible even before they are released. You might also think that the one by one sales market, although lucrative, probably isn’t the lowest hanging fruit. You may also think that if you could build a product that an institution of hundreds, if not thousands of people could sign on for a big multi-iPad deal, that’s a better route to cashing in on your nifty ideas. Then you look through your ideas and find this iPad and think, “What would these Colleges want?” …

I’ll tell you what they WOULDN’T want… Video chat, music, video or anything going on during a lesson. Books on a tablet are awesome and makes for a win in so many ways but allowing these young people with ways to talk to each other or get distracted during MY lesson isn’t interesting at all. So… Let’s release a perfect device for the lowest hanging fruit, make them happy, sell them all out and re-invent for round 2. Then we can sell to the regular public.

I submit there will be several iPad options (and VERY soon). iPad for Education, iPad for People, and iPad for Geeks

More thoughts to come later. Like I said this is just a theory. What do you think?