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Pre-order options: reserve vs. Ship

T

T4R06

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 8, 2007
1,212
74
CT
Ok I never done pre-order but i have so many apple products at home.

What do you guys prefer:
pre-order and wait to be shipped to your doorstep
or
pre-order = reserve and go to apple store to pick it up?

What is the scenario if you do pre-order then choose reserve and on the first day you go to apple store with a bunch of people in line. Do you have to still fall on line? Or go directly at store and tell genius folks that you have a reservation?
 
Reserve at store is relatively new -- started with the iPhone 3GS. They have a separate line and you have x amount of hours to p/u. It does not require a CC, but it also does not guarantee you a unit on launch day. The "reserve" stock and the store's retail stock are separate & I recall some 3GS "reserve" stock not getting to stores in time for launch.

Pre-order, you give Apple your CC#, and they ship it out just before launch (at least historically), but again no guaranteed delivery date until it does ship.
 
Hoping the Pre-Order online will say "Delivers by April 3rd." This means that it has the "guaranteed release day delivery like the 3GS and Snow Leopard did.
 
I am hoping educational institutions can pre-order and get relatively quick shipping at launch time. We are ordering one to test out at our PK-12 school and I will likely order myself one at the same time. With the textbook deals and the Penguin Books promo video I can see the iPad being used by almost all levels at our school.

I know when we pre-ordered Leopard as an institution it did not ship for 2 or 3 days AFTER release date, while individual orders arrived the day of release.
 
I'm going to do a pickup. Gives you the excitement of being at the store, without having to camp out. Plus like the previous poster said, it's kind of cool to walk out the door with that bag and everyone knowing what you have.
 
goobot said:
i love to pick it up. i like to watch people look at the bag when the brand new mac/iphone comes out:cool:
Click to expand...

A lot of times they have special bags for new products too. The original iPod nano had a special bag, the iPhones did (still do?) and I still have the special bag from my original Macbook Air.
 
If you reserve an iPad do you pay for it online or in the store? Either way I guess this is what I will be doing, I don't feel like risking having to wait a few days to get my iPad...
 
I think I will end up preodering for store pickup and get there 2 hoursish before the store opens to guarantee that I get my 64GB model. Only thing that is driving me to do delivery is the availability of the accessories. Just want to get my Apple case and the keyboard dock.
 
Just go with pre-order and be done with it. No more dealing with any potential crowds or shortages. When it ships it ships at that point.
 
I'm gonna do pre-order to ship to my house. I believe Apple will have them delivered on Saturday because they want people to play with it over the week-end.

It IS a consumer/home type device and I really think Apple wants people to sit on the couch and play with it.

Steve did have a couch during the keynote.;)
 
maflynn said:
Just go with pre-order and be done with it. No more dealing with any potential crowds or shortages. When it ships it ships at that point.
Click to expand...

I think that I will do the same. I am still not too sure about which model I want.

I suspect that I will buy another once the 2nd gen iPad ships... after which the 1st gen iPad would pretty much be used in the house as an ebook reader, electronic picture frame, remote, etc. My wife would also probably take it on trips, but she is not a road warrior:

Since this iPad will only be in "real use" for the first year... I need to ask myself if I want to over-buy or not.

Choice 1 is capacity:

I have no interest in keeping any significant amount of music on the device. I always travel with my 160GB iPod, which is a better form factor than the iPad for music. About 2GB of music on the iPad would be plenty.

I would like my pictures with me, but I would prefer to have some published albums and slideshows, vs my entire unedited photo collection. Maybe 5GB of photos would be enough.

eBooks etc are quite small. I suspect a couple of GB would be more than enough... but I am not positive.

Videos: at 1-2 GB for each movie... this is the real driver of the storage needs. If I am going on a trip, I am not too sure what I will feel like watching... so I would want 1-2 dozen movies available just to give me enough choice.

From the above analysis, I do not think the 16GB model will be enough. 32GB will probably work... but I might go with the 64GB.​

Choice 2 is 3G or not:

I do have a Verizon MiFi which I plan to keep, so that could easily support the iPad, albeit not as elegantly as with a built in radio.

Then there is the built in GPS... but we have in-dash GPS units in our cars, plus I already have the Tom-Tom app on my iPhone for use when traveling. The iPad would be better than the iPhone... but I need to trade that off against the fact that this Gen 1 device will only be "outside the house" for the first year before I buy Gen 2. Once that happens, this device will be used primarily inside the house where we have good WiFi coverage.

I would prefer the 3G model, but probably will not get it because of the short life of me using this device outside the house.​

Bottom line: I am leaning toward the 32GB or 64GB WiFi model.

/Jim
 
Pre Order . Very likely to get shipped out on Friday night for delivery on Saturday.

Unless you really want that special gift for people waiting in line. I really don't think it's going to be anything worth waiting in line for though. Even if it was (and I doubt) a free accessory , like a case or a keyboard dock ... the $60 of that product value is still not worth the gas it took you to get there and the number hours you had to wait in line for it.
 
boss1 said:
Pre Order . Very likely to get shipped out on Friday night for delivery on Saturday.

Unless you really want that special gift for people waiting in line. I really don't think it's going to be anything worth waiting in line for though. Even if it was (and I doubt) a free accessory , like a case or a keyboard dock ... the $60 of that product value is still not worth the gas it took you to get there and the number hours you had to wait in line for it.
Click to expand...

Speak for yourself.
 
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