If you make a $100,000 or more, then according to a recent NPD report YOU are very interested in buying the iPad. The report also found that current Apple product owners are 40 percent more interested in the iPad than their non-Apple-product owners. But back to the $100K – that little factoid certainly signals to me that the iPad is not ready for mainstream adoption (at least not yet). But this shouldn’t surprise many folks either as we know Apple products aren’t cheap products and they aren’t the discount brand, that’s not their style. Still, I’m more interested in whether or not people making $40,000 or less are interested in the iPad enough to purchase. I do think the iPad is a “game changer” primarily from the perspective of a new platform of computing. I think the iPad will have a similar effect on the computing industry that the iPhone had on the cellphone industry. The iPhone radically flipped the cellphone game and changed how designers, manufacturers and carriers look at phones today. Keep in mind tablet computing has been around for years and never really took off! Was it too soon, were people not ready yet, was it just a laptop that folded down, was it a lack of apps that were made to take advantage of its design? Who knows, I remember owning one, I had a touch screen tablet computer from HP, the TC1000. It was fun to own and hi-tech at the time but those machines are like the old flip phone compared to an iPhone – cool but not much substance. I think this time around is definitely different. Computing is ALL about relevancy, if a product or service isn’t relevant to your life you don’t need it. I think over the coming months people will realize that this new”er” computing platform will have apps that will make the product that much more relevant to peoples lives and then the demand will increase. For example I think the iPad could revolutionize classrooms and help bring paperless classrooms into reality but I don’t know any teachers who make $100G’s. I just hope we get to a point where people who don’t make $100,000+ are able to afford one!

Are you buying or waiting? What are your thoughts, is this just a new toy for the wealthy?