Enter the What's-'Equal'-to-an-Apple-iPad Contest

When Nextgov first posted my story yesterday that Air Mobility Command wanted to buy 18,000 Apple iPads for its flight crews, I left out what the public affairs folks at AMC considered a key word from the solicitation.

In the notice of the upcoming request for proposals, AMC said it wanted to acquire a "minimum of 63 and a maximum of 18,000, iPad2, Brand Name or Equal [emphasis added] devices." Lt. Col. Glen Roberts said leaving the word "equal" out was erroneous, as there are "hundreds" of tablets equal to the iPad2, and the command is really looking for tablet computers, not iPads. We updated the story to reflect this assertion.

But is there really an equal in the market to the iPad2 or is this contracting lingo sleight of hand to get around the fact that AMC really wants to buy 18,000 iPads, but can't say so directly?

If there was an equal to the iPad in the marketplace, folks would be gobbling them up.

The iPad, like it or not, is a singular product for which there is no equal today, and I say that as someone who does not view the company's latest product as a new wonder of the world. To insist -- as AMC does -- that there is an equal to the iPad2 today begs credulity.

So, dear readers, I invite you to submit comments on what you make of the word "equal" in the AMC iPad solicitation, and I will award the funniest commentator one of my favorite possessions -- a genuine Apple Newton t-shirt, which I picked up at the introduction of that handheld computer at Symphony Hall in Boston in August 1993. The Newton, as most of us know, was eclipsed by the Palm Pilot, another product done in by the iPad.

I can afford to be generous with the Newton t-shirt -- I have two. This contest will end Friday, Feb 17.