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?

I’m trying to make a calendar wallpaper for each month this year. Here’s “Feb 2010. What do you think?

[before you ditch this article, please add your iPad thoughts in the comments. We have a couple months before this thing is available, let's chat about it]

Did you see Steve’s presentation today? I didn’t as I was in route to a client meeting. Nevertheless I have read the reviews, gawked at the images and soaked up your tweets as much as any human could in my position. I have a couple thoughts about this whole iPad thing…

1. “Magical” really? Since when did magical come into marketing lingo again? It’s not all THAT magical (in my humble opinion), since we have had the iPhone and iPod Touch for several years now but ok, whatever floats your boat.

2. It’s just a big iPod Touch!!! I am just as big of an Apple enthusiast as the next guy but there’s nothing in this big device different from an iPod Touch other than size, right?

3. ok, yeah, it’s friggin sexy! I do love the sleek, sexy, awesome opportunities this larger iPod offers. I’m a dreamer and I honestly do believe in it’s future.

4. No Multitasking?!?!? WTF!?! You expect me to read my email, website, ebook, RSS feed, or whatever WITHOUT at least listening to Pandora or Last.fm? This is worth $500+ … not so sure.

5. STILL no flash!!! AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!

6. Where’s my iSight? I could live without the forward facing camera (for a bit) but a letter sized iSomething without video iChat capabilities?? What the heck were you thinking??

7. I WANT ONE!!

I say #7 just to set the record straight. I most likely won’t be buying THIS version of the iPad but I do believe in the steps that Apple has made to bring this to market. It’s got all the promise of the iPhone and all the awesome that is Apple mixed with the (hopefully not last) bit of pepper Mr. Jobs has to bring to the planet. I’m all over this innovation and can’t wait to get one, but I can wait till at the very least, it gets an iSight.

That’s all I got, add your juice below…