The product that has been three years in the making is finally gearing up for its big debut to the public. Apple’s store went offline, as it usually does when they are bringing something new to the table, to later coming back on with the option to pre-order your preferred flavor of iPad goodness. Before the rather infamous iPad press conference that would shine a light on the latest apple product, the rumor mill was at fever pitch.

Many of the respective gadget websites began bantering about what the house of Mac would bring out of the bag this time. Would it be earth shattering or a disappointment to send the company crying in a corner like a camper on MW2 buzzkilled on the cusp of a tactical nuke. Well, impressions fell right in the middle much like Steve Job’s description of the product in portable entertainment/computing family. Many were underwhelmed, others optimistic of its future prospect and a fair majority absolutely livid at the ’this is it’ feeling of the product.

In my opinion, the iPad will live and die on the apps built for it much like many of the existing portable products within the Apple family. The iPhone was ground breaking for its accurate touch screen and stylish yet easy to use operating system but once all of the hype cleared many asked with so many simple things like MMS and 3G left out, what is so great about it? Apple answered with the app store and transformed the mobile phone market and also gave the mobile gaming market a huge jolt in the arm. The iPhone is now seen as a real contender to the PSP and DS and this is where the iPad comes into the fray. With CNN reporting that the iPad pre-order numbers have gone past the 100,000 mark on the first day, their is definitely a market for the iPad to capitalize. With gaming on the iPhone growing on a daily basis we could see another competitor to strengthen the iPhone’s accidental blitz on the portable gaming market.

iPad Prices start at $499 for the base model with wi-fi and 16gb due to ship on the 3rd of April. The iPad comes in 16, 32 and 64 gb flavors with the more expensive models including 3G as well as wi-fi.

Check out our iPad Gaming Overview for the potential for gamers this new platform can bring.

What do you think? What types of games would you like to see on the iPad? Will you be pre-ordering an iPad?