Early Adopting and the iPad...

Am I the only one disappointed in Apple's new iPad? I just think that with all the hype leading up to yesterdays big announcement that the news would have been better. Down the road in a later version it might be worth picking up? As it stands now I don't see any good reason to think about buying one. Which leads me to my blog title. Is it a good idea to buy the first version of a new product? Technology wise I would have to say probably not.

Just look at most early products. They are usually overpriced and don't have many features. So why the rush to buy them? Is it really worth it just to be able to say you bought it before everyone else? In almost all cases I would say absolutely not. The only exceptions would be if you bought it just before the new model came out and you were sure that the first version was acceptable. You can usually get it at a discount in that situation. I do know that I would not want to buy a new piece of technology without seeing a number of reviews of other buyers. Being first on the block means nothing if the product is defective or does not perform up to the standards of what I thought it should.

So back to the iPad. Am I going to buy one? Not a chance at this point. After seeing how Apple upgraded the iphone so quick I would never buy a first generation product from them. Down the road they may turn it into a product I would want. But right now I would think a good smart phone and a laptop would make way more sense. The iPad seems to be stuck in the middle. Not quite meeting the expectations of either market. Bottom line is why buy into that?

News Consumption over the last 20 years...

Pew Research Center posted a table showing the results of its PewNews Interest Index over the last 20 years. There is some interesting information in the numbers. Two of the trends up are Washington Politics and Money. I can see money being an issue people would want to follow closely. Many Americans are having a hard time making it as the latest mortgage foreclosures show. Another area that has almost doubled in the last 20 years is people's interest in Personalities and Entertainment. The constant coverage of Britney, Lindsey, Paris, etc. I think shows this trend. The category that troubles me the most though is Science and Technology. Over the last 20 years the number of people who follow news on this has dropped by just over 50%! That is amazing to me. Talk about screwed up priorities. The drop in the number of American born students entering undergraduate and graduate programs majoring in science and technology continues to fall. People do not realize that the future of our economy depends on these fields. So what is the answer? I wish I knew...