Will you buy an iPad 2?

The dust of the announcement has settled, and the immediate effects of Steve Jobs' famous Reality Distortion Field have waned. The iPad 2 is almost here: get used to it. Predictably, crackpots and pundits have had their say, and just as with the original iPad, not everyone is thrilled with Apple's latest device. And just like the original iPad, the crackpots and pundits are wrong, wrong, wrong-o wrong. This thing will sell in the millions. The tens of millions.

The question is, are you getting one?

I can't answer for you, but I can answer for me: the iPad 2 addresses almost every gripe that kept me from buying the original iPad, so just try to stop me from buying one. Back in December, I asked you what you wanted from the iPad 2, and I presented my own wish list as well; Apple hit four out of six of my wish list items. As someone once said, two out of three ain't bad. Unfortunately, the one feature readers wanted most from the iPad, an increase in display resolution, didn't make the cut this time around. I suspect a fair number of those readers might hold off until the iPad 3.

I won't be waiting any longer. Despite the same 1024x768 display resolution as the original iPad, and despite the top capacity still topping out at 64 GB (a complaint that's at least partially mitigated by iTunes Home Sharing in iOS 4.3), I'm taking the express train to iPadia as soon as Apple pulls it into the station.

When the iPad was first announced last year, I didn't think there was enough of a gap between the iPhone and the Mac to justify its existence. But after getting an iPhone 4, a far faster and more capable device than my iPhone 3G, I noticed a couple of things. First, I noticed that I was using my iPhone for a lot of the stuff I used to do exclusively on my Mac. Second, I found the only truly restrictive aspect of the iPhone 4 was its small screen. "Gee," I thought, "if only Apple made a product that was a bigger version of the iPho- OH, HEY."

I'll be one of the legions of "Kool-Aid drinking fanboys" ready to buy an iPad 2, and I'll do it with a smile (followed by a wince when my credit card statement arrives). How about you? Are you joining the iPad ranks for the first time, upgrading from the original iPad, waiting for the iPad 3 with Retina Display/antimatter fuel cells/built-in Cuisinart, or just waiting for this touchscreen "fad" to blow over? Let us know in the poll below.

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