I just received an email from Apple, simply stating iPad is Here.  So, I'm going with that, leaving to get in (a hopefully short) line to pick up the !6Gb WiFi model I have reserved.

Stay tuned throughout the next 48 hours, as I share my experiences.

Discovering Zoho about a year ago, I’ve become a fan of not just their applications (politely written off  by a Microsoft exec last year as fake office), but also how hyper-focused they are on their customers and partnerships.  Unlike Google, they realize that the best avenue for success for them is delivery quality applications that integrate well amongst themselves and with the various market leaders as defined by their userbase.  And, you won’t find very many “Beta” labels slapped on apps as an excuse for subpar experiences.  In short, this is what you get when you’re a company that needs to meet payroll based on your product, rather than a quasi-Trojan Horse for capturing user data for your search engine.

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The most impressive viral marketing campaign produced.  Heineken Italy collaborated with girlfriends, journalists and professors to convince over 1,100 soccer fans to forgo the Champions League Match to go to a concert.  15 minutes into it, they let them in on the joke, just in time for the start of the game, which was broadcast to the surprised but remarkably chipper audience.

The results? 1.5 million caught the "concert" on live TV, and over 5 million hits to the site Heineken created for the event.  And of course, the viral news coverage, blogs and YouTube visitors.

Ryan Tate of Valleywag has written an excellent article, breaking down the recent public statements and privacy transgressions of Google, and how they seem to emanate from an attitude and belief that they are of more importance and relevance than most corporations and governments.

I subscribe to the podcast This Week in Google, and share Ryan’s take on the comments made by Google search engineer Matt Cutts in regards to the Google Buzz privacy breach, wherein he basically justifies this and other issues as minor based on the fact that the stock continues to climb.  I like how Ryan summarizes his complaint:

Profits do not mean you’re connecting with users’ most pressing needs. If that were the case then Microsoft, flush with revenue from its old-line Office and Windows businesses to this day, would have clobbered Google in Web search years ago.

He also calls out Google’s need to "feed the search monster", it’s only viable revenue source, by breaching privacy laws in order to deepen its pool of available data to mine.  As I wrote about recently, and was generally confirmed by the Google Buzz Product Manager, we should expect more of the same lapses as Google attempts to test the boundaries of what consumers and businesses are willing to tolerate in return for low-cost software applications.

While there are some good aspects to Google’s business, and they have done the industry a service by expanding our collective thinking as to how technology can reach the masses, there should be serious concerns amongst consumers and enterprises alike as to the costs associated and whether Google executives are truly following their own belief of "Do no evil" or have made it a hollow company slogan.