Doctor Cialdini, professor of influence, lists Scarcity as one of the seven principles of influence. Is anyone surprised that my Apple store “can’t keep iPads in stock?” I had to put my name on a list to be notified when my iPad had arrived. After the notification, I would have 24 hours to claim my iPad. Lo and behold, my notification came one day after I put my name on the list. Call me a nonbeliever, but I think this is Dr Cialdini’s principles well learned by Apple employees with fancy degrees.

As the girl swiped my card in the store i said to her, “You know what I’m most excited about is the experience of opening it.” This is usually the best part of buying an Apple product.

My sister sat next to me as I opened it to experience it with me. She’s a long time Apple user. We waited until the kids were in bed and the dishes were done. We sat next to each other on my orange Ikea futon. We took a deep breath and held hands. The experience was bad. Bad job guys.

First, the iPad doesn’t come with ear buds. Witten on the box? Probably, but it’s an expectation with a device like this. I guess Steve thinks we should all tighten our belts a little, what with the recession and all. Besides, I only paid $500.

It does use the same cable as my iPhone does, so that was an expectation met. And the little envelope that comes with the device is pretty sexy. There’s an instruction manual in it, which consists of one small sheet of paper. It points out the power button, volume buttons, and rotation lock. That was really pretty. An expectation exceeded, but that was just a piece of paper.

Then we turned it on. Can’t use it until you plug it into iTunes. Lame. I wanted to finally get a separate account from Molly, so we tried to go through that process. It was messy, confusing, and we ultimately failed. Oh well. Using my existing account isn’t so bad, because I synched all my apps from my phone.

I named the device Steve, and I’m posting this with him. I give the acquisition/opening experience a B or B-.