By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Last week's iPad 2 debut offered few surprises, other than Apple's new tablet not living up to out-of-control rumors -- and still there is endless cacophony on the InterWebs. By measure of noise, there is seemingly no other tablet worth purchasing. But, of course, that's not the case. Perception isn't always reality. But from iPad 2 hype and perceptions, there are five lessons competitors can learn.

I present them in no particular order of importance with recommendations competitors should consider adopting.

1. iPad 2 hype is out of control. Make no mistake about it. Look at the ridiculous number of rumor blog posts or stories ahead of the launch, and the even larger number from March 2nd onwards. That's worth tens of millions of dollars in free marketing to Apple. Betanews posted just five iPad 2 stories from launch day (six, counting impact on Samsung), and traffic was lower than usual for nearly all other posts