Apple is a strange company you either love them or hate them… One thing that nobody denies is that they make great and well designed products, the latest of which is the iPad. This is already on sale in the US and will start to become available at the end of May beginning of June in other countries (Sony Vaio VGN-FZ battery).

The demand for the iPad is so high that Apple have been having to continually revise international launch dates and extend US shipping dates. Though it is possible to buy iPads in the Apple stores in the USA (Sony VGP-BPS8 battery).

So what is this new Apple iPad phenomenon are we seeing the same sort of euphoria we saw with the iPhone? Is all this interested justified or is this just a brick doomed to failure? Read on to find out what I think in our first comprehensive look at the iPad…

Eagerly anticipating the arrival of the iPad
Now when the iPad was first announced I liked the look of it, but was determined not to be one of the first to get one. I thought I would wait and see what others thought before splashing out my hard earned dollars on the latest bit of Apple kit. Well that plan fell to pieces when the pre-orders for the WiFi 3G version were announced. Mine was delivered on May 7th: two days before I arrived in Florida to pick it up .

The WiFi only version has been available in the US for some time, and it far outsold the initial estimates. I had absolutely zero interest in this version as it did not include a GPS, nor could a GPS be connected to it. In my mind that defeated the objective of having a small(ish) portable device. Also although there are many WiFi hotspots all over the place it is inconvenient trying to find one when you need to read your mail, or send a few tweets so the 3G was essential as well (Sony VGP-BPL11 battery).

With this in mind I eagerly awaited the arrival of my iPad: WiFi, 3G and 64Gb memory. In fact it has been quite some time now since I have had the “childhood” impatience of waiting to get my hands on something new. It was quite a thrill again. Importantly unlike my childhood urges which often resulted in disappointment this was entirely different… The iPad is wonderful!!!

The day we arrived in Florida the iPad was sitting on my hall table waiting for me to open it. I had to control myself and do a few chores before I attacked the packaging, knowing full well that if I started to unpack the iPad then other important things would not get done. When I finally got round to opening the packaging I found my bright and shiny device pre-charged and ready to go .

I was surprised at both the size and weight of it. You can look at specs and try to figure out exactly how it will look and feel, but to actually hold it blows away all your pre-conceptions. In reality the iPad is about 1″ smaller than an A4 notepad in both height and width, and weighs a fraction more. In fact the Apple case feels like it weighs about a third of the iPad itself. The result is a device that weighs a lot less than a bag of sugart.

Video of the Churchill Square, Brighton, UK store opening 25 July 2009. I’m second in line and just missed out on first place by 15 minutes!!!! Fanboys around the world you’re going to love this! Hi-fives!