Shorter Lines May Spell Twilight or Termination for iPad Sales

Friday is the newest mighty iPad's first day out of the stall, with Apple's latest offering for the gadget-gorged masses who still want more. The question is has iPad peaked or can it still outdo its predecessors?

With gadgetry, as with the box office, the opening weekend is often the one to watch—from "The Terminator" to the Twilight Series to "The Apple Dumpling Gang."

Some early reports on the iPad's opening day are indicating shorter lines. By comparison, we suspected right away that Apple's gizmo 2 was going to be a runaway hit, judging from the hordes waiting their turn to buy one.

In San Francisco's flagship Apple store on Friday, the line formed on only one side of a city block, a quarter as long as was for iPad 2's release, according to News24. At the main Apple store in New York on Fifth Avenue, News24 reported that 750 people waited in line as compared to 1,190 for the last launch a year ago, according to Piper Jaffray market analysts.

This may be due to off-the charts pre-orders, as News24 reported. Or not. As with some of our favorite flicks, time will tell whether the iPad hit its peak with 2, or whether "The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again."

Apple witnessed close to 1 million sales for the iPad 2 during its debut weekend in March 2011, according to Reuters. By contrast, the original iPad, which went on sale in April 2010, crossed to the one-million mark 28 days after its launch, Reuters reported.

Not unlike "The Terminator," the first iPad wowed its audience. Apple's wild success, combined with the build up to P2, had customers rising before the sun to have the latest tablet in their twitching fingers.

Fans of "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" know the feeling.

I still remember seeing "The Terminator" for the first time. By mistake I walked into the wrong theater, kind of like the lady who invented chocolate chip cookies because she forgot to melt the chips down for a batch of plain chocolate ones.

But like hungry chip eaters thereafter, I deliberately returned to Terminator 2 and, unfortunately, to 3.

After my disappointment with "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," I never bothered to see the final terminator movie. But despite Terminator 3, "We'll always have Paris"—a la "The Terminator" and Terminator 2.

Will the iPad meet the same fate as the terminator series in its round 3?

Perhaps the dwindling lines for Apple's latest tablet are due to pre-orders or maybe it is suffering from colony collapse. Perhaps its fans, like the terminator's, will drop off this time around.

Or, as with the Twilight Saga, they could stay away from the third offering at first only to come back in greater numbers.

The body shoots itself up with adrenaline to fight an onslaught of too many cupcakes and sugar cookies. And Twilight's audiences could only take so much of "You are my only reason to stay alive. If that's what I am," and "I don't have the strength to stay away from you anymore," before fear of adult-onset diabetes kept them away.

And about Edward, I wish I could tell you the Tweep I stole this from, and I will give them after-credit if I can ever figure it out. But the Tweep asked — If vampires can't see their reflections in a mirror, then why is Edward's hair always perfect?

Despite the low $64 million opening-weekend gross for the movie's third installment ("The Twilight Saga: Eclipse")—compared to the $142 million its predecessor ("New Moon") raked in from the start—that was not the last word, according to Box Office Mojo.

The vampires sparkled in the sun in the end. Eclipse broke through its initial lag, going on to gross $300 million, which is around $4 million more than its predecessor's impressive $296 million run.

By the time the fourth movie in the series, "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1" hit the box office in Nov. 2011, its fans were happy enough to show up in the largest first-weekend turnout in the saga's history—to the tune of $138 million.

It remains to be seen whether Apple's newest iPad will slow then rocket like the Twilight Saga or whether, like terminator, it peaked with 2? There's no spoiler alert on that one, as the ending is still anyone's guess.

If you get the Twilight references but were saying—"You had me at goodbye" when I rambled on about the terminator, here's my best legal advice. Put away your games and gadgets for a day, and sit your shaking body down to catch up on the glory days of Linda and Arnold. If you can't go that cold-tech-turkey, watch them on your iPad.