We are now (hopefully) just a couple of weeks away from the “triumphant” debut of Apple’s latest and greatest creation, the iPad (can you hear angels singing in the background? I can). Sarcasm aside, most tech blogs are awaiting the iPad. Truthfully, no one single person has killed the Apple tablet more than me. I was killing it long before MSNBC and CNN jumped on the rumor bandwagon. While I won’t completely abandon my soap box, I feel Apple has been taking undeserved criticism for a product we don’t even have in hand.

Did the iPad fail to fulfill the hype generated by every news outlet known to man? Nothing could have fulfilled that level of hype. Steve Jobs could have walked out on stage with ten of the most beautiful models – nude and said the following:

“The iPad was a code name we’ve given to our model cloning program. For $499, you can buy your very own Apple Model and it will be your lifelong servant to do with what you wish.” I guarantee that if it happened that way, there still would have been a nerd in the audience who would say, “Yeah but they don’t support Flash.” The point being that everyone wanted something different from the iPad; it never had a chance to live up to the generated hype.

I was near the San Francisco area a few weeks back, and one of their news stations had a panel breaking down their ideas about the iPad. News tool #1 at one point felt aloud that “$500” was a major purchase for a household. Hey tool, no it is not. At $500, Apple completely nailed the price. As a side note, it seems Apple may already be hedging on the price, ready and apparently willing to drop below the $500 threshold. Regardless, at $500 it is not a significant purchase for people who buy gadgets. At $500 my wife doesn’t even get (too) mad. At $1,000 it becomes an issue.

The price is acceptable, so what is wrong with the iPad? At nine inches, the iPad may be a little big; it does not support Flash (which despite Steve Jobs’ insistence is still the default media interface for the web); it does not have an SD card reader built in; the keyboard may be awkward; the battery claims are utter baloney; the App store has its own issues with software restrictions; and finally Apple still has this weird obsession with providing AT&T business.

The real truth is we don’t know what is good or bad with the iPad. We can conjecture and some people have had some time hands-on with the device, but in general nobody knows—we all have to wait until it is in our hands before we can truly assess. The battery life claims for example, ARE exaggerated. Despite what they may claim, no one can give you an accurate assessment of the iPad until a full week after its launch.

So what is my assessment? I can’t give you one. I know Apple got the price correct, but the rest of the unit? We need time.

The one issue I do have is Apple tying the iPad to AT&T for 3G yet again. While the lack of a contract may seem to be a good thing, that knife cuts both ways. If you don’t want data service you can drop it at any time, but AT&T can also drop you at any time (and they might) if they don’t like what or how much you are downloading. If AT&T drops you, what can you do? Nothing; no 3G for you. I can promise that within months, AT&T will begin to drop people, claiming they are eating up too much bandwidth. This is a big problem for me, I know litigation will ensue.

I can say that the longer I live without the iPad, the less I feel the need to buy one during release week. While the price is good, I fell Apple may give in to early sales numbers and (just like they did with the iPhone) drop the price, giving the middle finger to us early adopters. Was I excited on announcement day? Yes! Am I excited now? Not as much. Will I buy an iPad? Probably; just maybe not right away.

- Joshua Tarrats