Many people won't buy a 1.0 Apple product because they think Apple will either add new features or drop the price quickly. (Other people are just haters looking for excuses).

When making a large purchase like an iPad, it's important to be as informed as possible. Based on years of experience following Apple and their product line, here are my predictions for the future of the iPad:

• Apple will not make hardware changes to the iPad for one full year. iPods are updated every September. iPhones are updated every June. The iPad will be updated every April.
• The iPad will get free updates to fix bugs. So don't think buying 1.0 means you have a buggy product (all iPhones are fully upgradeable).
• The cheapest iPad is $499. This will not change. Apple might add more storage and features in future revisions, but $499 will be the low point for a while. 
• The high end iPad models are where Apple makes most of its money. The 3G and memory chips cost less than $10. So these are also the models that might drop in price the most.
• There are way too many iPad models right now. This is very unlike Apple and I believe they will consolidate once they figure out which models people are buying. 
• Given all this, I predict that later this year the iPad product line will be something like:

1. $499, 16GB WiFi
2. $599, 32GB 3G
3. $699, 64GB, 3G

Bottom line: If you are on the fence about buying a 1.0 iPad, go with the cheapest model.

I don't think there will be a hardware revision this year, and I don't think there will be a price drop on the $499 iPad. Whether you are buying a computer, car, or iPad, you get the most value out of the base model, and options have diminishing returns.

Being an early adopter can be super expensive if done poorly. But it is a manageable addiction. Buy the low end model, and be sure to sell it when you upgrade.

I found it valuable so I am sharing.

How far before we go too far?

If you were planning on popping a lot of location-based ads into your upcoming killer iPhone app, you might want take a peek at the latest update from Apple for developers. A rather stern note on the site reads: “If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user’s location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.” Is Apple doing this to prevent abuse from advertisers, so that users won’t end up with advertisements from stores all around them? There isn’t any real explanation as to why this isn’t allowed, but it’s certainly worth taking note if you’re building an app with the intention of putting advertisements in. After all, you wouldn’t want to spend your precious time building an app only to find out that it will be rejected by Apple, right?

Interesting little tid bit. Somewhere else folks have been wondering out loud if this has anything to do with Apple's purchase of Quattro or some other secret juicy soon to be released nugget? Unfortunately I don't recall where or who was doing this wondering...

It certainly can't be about diluting the App Store right? It is already flooded with loads of sub-quality apps... so what is this about?

Or I may be wrong. Perhaps they are just trying to clean up and tighten control to prevent users from being spammed with ads...

Regardless of the underlying reason why Apple is doing this it is for the good of the industry. It does make one feel protected and looked after doesn't it?

From the realm of sci-fi to Steve Jobs' stage: The iPad is official. What is it? What can it do? How does it work? Here's everything you need to know about Apple's newest creation, all in one place.

Follow the link above to an in depth look at the iPad.

Are there reasons to suggest that the iPad won't be Apple's third game-changer in a decade, following the iPod family of products and the phenomenal iPhone, which has turned into a mutli-billion dollar business in less than three years?

There are at least three things that give me pause.

First, I wonder if Apple hasn't actually created too good an interface for content providers. One of the things I love about my Kindle is it has just the right sets of features for reading books and many magazines. It is basic content delivered easily at reasonable prices.

Apple's device allows textbook publishers and others to pour on multimedia features like pictures and videos. Publishers love that option because it seemingly gives them options to charge higher prices. But is it possible that many customers don't actually want the extra bells and whistles? They just want the basic content at affordable prices.

Of course, that's not true for all customers, some surely want as many features as they can get, but it is possible that content providers jumping onto the iPad platform will overshoot the market's mainstream, providing more room for Amazon's Kindle and other simpler readers (of course, Amazon is trying to figure out how to get third-party applications onto the Kindle so it can compete with Apple).

Also, the iPad is entering a pretty crowded space. Not only are there are growing number of e-readers, multifunctional netbooks share many of the same features as the iPad (without the slick design, of course), and other major manufacturers are coming up with their own tablets as well. I'm sure there are a class of consumers who will look at Apple's device and not see a place for it in their arsenal of gadgets.

And that leads to my third concern. I wonder whether Apple is beginning to get into uncomfortable territory where it will face hard choices about the degree to which it cannibalizes itself. One of the great things about the iPod is that it was all new growth for the company. The iPhone might have cannibalized the iPod a bit, but for the most part it was all new growth for the company. Apple surely hopes the iPad slots in nicely between its phones and its computer lines, but if it doesn't, Apple might have a difficult balancing act on its hands.

It's hard to bet against Apple. The two things I admire most about the company are its ability to think holistically about business models (iPod + iTues, iPhone + the App store, iPad + iBookstore) and its willingness to keep innovating. Imagine how different it would have been if Apple stopped at the first generation iPod, or just rode the iPod for as long as it could. Its willingness to step out and enter into new categories is an important lesson for all companies.