Apple’s iPad mini is expected to be a big hit in the coming days and months. In a report from AppleInsider, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster mentioned that he believes Apple will sell about 1.5 million iPad mini in the first weekend of sales. The iPad mini goes on sale today, and will sell through the weekend, despite hurricane Sandy shutting down Apple’s Retail Stores on the East Coast for several days. During initial sales of the iPad mini, 4G LTE versions of the device will not be available but will go on sale later on this month.

Munster also mentioned that it is the “newness of the form factor for consumers” that will continue to the grow iPad sales, with 20-25% of the market accounted as smaller-sized tablets. Munster believes that people will realize the portability and the benefits of having the iPad experience in a smaller form factor. Prior to the release of the iPad mini, Munster also noted that five iPad minis would be equal to the cannibalization of one full sized iPad.

Gene Munster has a proven track record and has speculated on numerous other Apple products, including the original iPad, iPad 2 and iPhone. Munster is right in his speculation that the iPad will eventually come to lead the 7.9” tablet market, much of which is currently dominated by Android and Samsung devices.

The mission statement of the iPad experience can be summed up very nicely in an earlier Gizmodo review of the iPad’s industrial design:

The iPad functional objective was to make the product as invisible as possible, a simple, elegant stage for the real important actors: The applications.

The iPad isn’t about the hardware as an intermediary to some other experience, the experience of using the computer. There are no input devices to get in the way, no worrying about screen resolution, operating systems, or capability. You turn it on and use the input devices nature gave you to interact with it. While most of the fretting on the PC side of the ledger is about hardware specifications, input devices, and operating systems; on the iPad side all of that falls away in favor of the applications used on the device.

Such an emphasis on simple end use and not all of the issues that get a user to end use is one of the secrets, and misunderstandings, of the iPad. Many have said Steve Jobs ignored the “wish lists” of users. Those people are absolutely right. Apple had no interest in creating another computer that required keyboards, mice, large monitors, and a plethora of ports to operate. Instead of complicating the experience, they sought to simplify it. I’ve heard it said a couple of times already that the iPad is the first computer that “gets out of the way” of the user. No complications or concerns. Simply charge the device and go.

I think then much of the criticism centers on the iPad hardware instead of the iPad experience because it’s the only frame of reference a lot of users and pundits have. We like to compare things to previous experiences and on first blush the iPad is “just another computer”. When you realize the iPad isn’t about Gigahertz, Megabytes, Megabits per second, or any of the other empirical measurements many in the tech media use as a ruler, you open yourself to the notion it’s about the experience. And to Apple, this is all about the experience. If you grab an iPad in an Apple Store and are thoroughly blown away by the experience, you won’t care how much internal memory it has. That is the genius of the iPad and that is the genius of Apple.

Have you had a chance to partake in the iPad experience? Were you impressed by it without the need to ask about technical specifications? Do you find Apple’s tendency to focus on the user experience to be a positive or negative? Leave us a comment and let us know.