The bright red holiday shirts are out at the Apple store in Palo Alto's Stanford Shopping Center and so are the curious fingers of shoppers looking into buying an iPad.
However, the iPad and now iPad Mini take second place to the season's most desired tablet computer.
"One in three people who said they wanted a tablet said they want the Google Nexus 7. I attribute that to Google's wonderful job of turning out a tablet for $199 that has a great user experience," TechBargains.com spokesperson Julie Vlahon said.
Vlahon says more than half of online shoppers they surveyed want to buy some kind of a tablet this holiday season -- most as a gift, but some for themselves.
"We are at a point where everyone seems to have one and now I feel like I would like to have one too," shopper Gail Bryman said.
Tablets may be the hot item this holiday season, but there is one that is off to a lukewarm start and that is in spite of Microsoft's most valiant marketing efforts.
The Microsoft Surface, running the new Windows RT operating system, had one reviewer saying he wanted to throw it out the window. Another photographed it in his garbage can.
Executive editor Dylan Tweney from VentureBeat says it's not that bad. He told ABC7 News, "The hardware is great and it's an incredibly well designed machine."
However, Tweney says the Surface needs a little fine tuning and a lot more apps.
The Windows app store is missing staples like Facebook and Twitter which might explain why Oprah Winfrey tweeted her love for the Microsoft Surface from the Twitter app on her iPad.
"There is definitely a chicken and egg issue with the apps which is until there are a lot of Window RT devices out there, there's not a big incentive for developers to make Windows RT applications," Tweney said.
The Surface is also expensive compared to the Nexus and Kindle tablets that flew off the shelves this Black Friday and may continue to soar through the holiday season.
