Market Talk

With Apple’s (AAPL) iPad launch only two days away, the early reviews are starting to trickle in. And the verdict – it’s a pretty sweet device.

From the overall design, to touch-screen capabilities and battery life, reviewers are gushing over the iPad. The only complaints were already well-documented: it doesn’t run Adobe’s (ADBE) Flash, there isn’t a camera and it can’t multi-task.

Here are some snippets from a few of the reviews:

- WSJ’s Walt Mossberg calls it a “beautiful” device that has “potential to change portable computing profoundly.”

- “I had high expectations for the iPad, and it has met or exceeded most of them,” Houston Chronicle’s Bob LeVitus says.

- USA Today’s Ed Baig says it’s a “winner” and stacks up nicely against Amazon’s (AMZN) Kindle as well as portable gaming devices.

- Is the iPad a perfect product? No,” Tim Gideon writes at PCMag. “And the omissions will give the anti-Apple crowd plenty of ammo. Why do I need this extra device that’s not a full-fledged laptop?”

- Andy Ihnatko at Chicago Sun Times says iPad isn’t a notebook replacement. “It feels more as if the iPad is filling a gap that’s existed for quite some time.”

- NYT’s David Pogue may have summed it up best: “If you like the concept, you’ll love the machine. The only question is: Do you like the concept?”

Amid the positive reviews, an impressive performance by Apple’s stock. It’s value has more than doubled during the past year and set another all-time high today in anticipation of the iPad’s debut.

Shares closed up 0.4% at $235.97.

To say the blogosphere is buzzing about the iPad is certainly an understatement. It seems like everyone has something to say about Apple’s (AAPL) new device.

From your typical tech blogs, to twitter, to even Paul Krugman, folks everywhere are weighing in on the new tablet. Some positive thoughts, fair amount of skepticism, but for the most part people seem excited to get their hands on the device and test it out.

And for Apple, this is all unfolding exactly according to plan. And if it seems like it’s a plan that’s been implemented before, well, it has. Seems like Apple’s got a blueprint for how they do this stuff, doesn’t it?

Phase one of a typical Apple product announcement is now complete as months of hype and speculation gave way to the iPad’s actual unveiling, David Pogue chronicles on his NYT blog.

Now phase two – blogger bashing and criticizing of the yet-to-be released product – is beginning and will continue over the next few months until the iPad actually goes on sale, he says.

“Then phase three will begin: positive reviews, people lining up to buy the thing, best-sellerdom, and the mysterious disappearance of the basher-bloggers,” Pogue notes.

So what’s the takeaway? IPad has vast potential, but “it’s too early to draw any conclusions,” he says. “And anyone who claims to know what will happen will wind up looking like a fool.”
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In an earlier post we pondered whether Apple (AAPL) was trying to steal some of Google’s (GOOG) thunder today. If that was truly its goal, it failed miserably.

Apple bragged this morning about selling three million apps, then the news about the acquisition of mobile ad company Quattro Wireless hit the wires. But all of it has been dwarfed by the unveiling of Nexus One, Google’s hip new super smartphone.

Reviews of Google’s device are starting to pour in, and most of them are extremely positive. WSJ’s Walt Mossberg calls it the “bold new face in super-smartphones” and says it’s the first phone he could consider carrying as his everyday hand-held computer.

“I like it a lot,” he says, noting it could attract people away from their iPhones or BlackBerrys.

TechCrunch says Nexus One is “a superior mobile device” that doesn’t have any obvious flaws or compromises. Engadget is also positive about the device, saying its “up their with the best of the breed.” But the blog remains a bit guarded and isn’t ready to give it a perfect-10 review.

“It’s not in any way the Earth-shattering, paradigm-skewing device the media and community cheerleaders have built it up to be,” blog says, noting if it had to choose between Nexus One or the Droid, it would choose the latter.

For what it’s worth, I had the opportunity to play around with Nexus One a few weeks ago but wasn’t at liberty to write about it at the time. I’m certainly not a phone wizard, but it was sleek and definitely seemed on par, if not better, than the iPhone.

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Remember when this was the hot new thing?

Palm Pre reviewers are gushing over the device, and investors are equally excited.

The stock’s jumped from $1.14 last December to more than $13 today, hitting a 52-week high of $13.64 in mid-day trading as the Pre’s release is only a couple days away.

Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski has a great roundup of Pre reviews. The general consensus is extremely positive, with poor battery life, limited apps and some hardware flaws as the only detractors to the device.

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