Apple announced today that pre-orders for the iPad will begin on March 12th, with the release being April 3rd for the Wifi models. Later in April for the 3G models.

http://www.apple.com

I'm no apple hater, but I will pass.

I'm gonna pass too. And in fact, there's lots of competing products out there that I'm more interested in. Some rumored products I'm anticipating: Zune Phone and the PSP Phone. Although I'd still prefer an Android based device, mostly because it's development suite is available on Windows, Mac and Linux. But that's just the computer programmer nerd in me talking.

Me too... My wife has an iPod touch. And while it's really cool, I don't see how having a bigger one would really help anything.

But I'm also really interested in seeing what a Zune phone would look like. I finally caved to the dark temptation presented by Microsoft gaming a while back and bought an XBox 360. The Zune phone is promising a lot of XBox Live integration... So that interests me. It'll either be a great product, or a great punchline to the dismal joke of Zune. Either way, I'm looking forward to it.

The rumors of a PSP phone have been around for a long time. As far as I know, though, they are complete baseless rumors. Which is a shame, as I'd line up for one of those. I like the PSP a lot, but never bought one because I didn't want any more devices to carry with me. Combining it with a phone gives me an excuse...

Android fascinates me, but I haven't seen anything quite compelling enough for me to lay out the money for a phone with it, yet. I'm kind of waiting for all the versions to shake out and mature, and see what rises to the top.

Sony recently announced their 'strategy'. They're going to make an online store. (I guess the other two failures didn't count.) They're going to make a PSP Go / Phone. (Is Sony the only company that can take a mediocre product, PSP, and make it both worse and more expensive, PSPGo?) Perhaps adding a phone, and lowering the price will garner some interest.

IMO Sony has content, it's valueable. Google has software. The Android with a Sony store IMO would be attractive. Thinking of the recent Sony/Ericsson phone crap throwing a store on top doesn't add any value.

Any one remember the 90s when Sony was semi-respected in the US?