A unique phenomenon played out at the Buffalo store Saturday--a number of Canadians had made the short drive across the border to participate in the iPad's U.S. only-launch. "It was a natural fit," said Delia Brereton, who made the trip all the way from Parry Sound, Ontario with her daughter Eli. "For my daughter, the iPad is better than a phone--she can use it to message me and play all the HD games. It's safe, too." "My brother is attending university," added young Eli, "and the iPad is perfect for me to communicate with him."

No matter what store they were buying their devices at, the first iPad users were unanimous in their enthusiasm for Apple's latest creation. "Remember 'Star Trek'?" joked Spiros Pantziris, a security technology specialist from Toronto who made the two-hour drive to the Buffalo store. "The iPhone is the communicator, and the iPad is a tricorder. All we need now is a teletransporter."

John Pepper, a 35-year-old waiting to get his hands on an iPad at the Fifth Avenue store, had less interstellar ambitions for his device. "I travel quite a lot so I enjoy movies and games and those kind of things," he said. "The iPad is more portable than most laptops."  Pepper, who also owns an iPhone, believes that the iPad will offer more functionality than the iPhone: "I guess my favorite part would be the size of the display."

In Holyoke, Bryan Kantor was buying his iPad for much the same reason. "I travel, on a plane the majority of the time, and I had an iPod touch, and a Kindle," he said. But he found the iPod touch's screen too small, and carrying a Kindle along with a phone and iPod touch proved cumbersome. Kantor's solution? Sell the touch and Kindle, and replace them with an iPad. "It's time to make a switch."