Boy.  What a week!  I am breathless.  Breathless.  Breath.  Less.  And I don’t have my own IPad yet—Steve?  Steve?  Steve?—but I did get to hold one.  Pretty kewl.

Seth Godin, my bud, makes some good points today about the IPad launch.  He lists ten secrets of the IPad launch, the greatest product launch ever.  Ah, but he missed the big one.

Apple makes it so incredibly easy to buy.  Whether online or in their stores, it is ez-pezy.  At other stores, checking out is such a process,–wait, wait, wait—but not at an Apple Store.  Kids with cool t-shirts take your order, swipe your card, email you the receipt, bingobango, you are out of there.  But no, not the big one.

They give you the IPad in a freaking cool white bag (Doubles as a gym bag!!). These little things are important…the plus and show off experience.  I have still have the stiff little bag my IPhone came in.  And no, this isn’t the big one, either.

Announcing the end of the browser. Seriously, with, what a zillion apps now?, I will be able to click on a button and get the information I need.  This is the week that browsers died.  Mark it down.  But no, this is not it.

Apple set a new product placement record.  Sales hit $150 million and why not?, free PR cost equivalency (FPRCE) was about $100 million.  Every news show I watched, every anchor person with big blonde hair had one.  (“Cindy–black side up, then type…”).  Helpful, sure, but not THE big one.

I didn’t see ONE Paris Hilton-Octomom-Britney type celebrity showing it off. Maybe it would be ok if Ellen Degeneres had one, but if Ryan Seacrest had it too, not so much.  Tiger didn’t use it as a prop either, and I bet a bucket of balls he has one back at the ranch.  (His favorite app?  ”Hot or Not”—ok, cheap shot.)  Nope not the BIG one.

The biggest secret to the most popular product launch ever:

Make the biggest fans wait just a b i t L O N G E R.  The early adopter Apple faithful…those who buy anything and everything from APPLE…of COURSE, want the super duper IPad, the one with 7G, free WIFI and free Starbucks forever, isn’t out yet.  Those are the people that Steve-OH is making wait for theirs.  It will be WEEKS before they get theirs.  They have to watch everyone else play with theirs.  Inside they are cringing with envy.  Ah, but Apple knows the power of delayed gratification.  Perverse maybe, but Apple can get away with making their most fervent supporters wait just a bit longer.

If you know one of these rabid supporters like I do, ask them if they have cancelled their order yet.