Apple analysts expect that the company may sell as many as 600,000 of its newly released iPad 2 this weekend, double what it sold when iPad made its debut. Business owners may not be among those waiting in hours-long lines.

The Cupertino, California-based company, which is being credited with single-handedly starting the tablet bubble, started accepting online orders for the product yesterday and is already reporting shipping delays of two to three weeks. But the question remains, is it a must-have for businesses?

An unscientific poll conducted by Portfolio.com using the iPhone app Opinionaided revealed that the tide is evenly split, with 50 percent of the 60 entrepreneurs responding saying it's a must-have, and 50 percent saying it isn't. Ten of the respondents were neutral.

For United Van Lines CEO Richard McClure, the updated version is a nice-to-have, not a must-have. “I wish,” he said when asked by Portfolio.com if he’s rushing out to get his. “But I guess the price you pay as an early adapter is not being able to upgrade right away.”

Apple and other retailers selling the device are trying to up sales by offering those who recently purchased an original iPad a $100 rebate toward a new one. But are people willing to plop down at least $399 just to be part of the cool crowd?

Well, that depends. For entrepreneurs who are on their way to the South by Southwest festival in Austin, having the newest gadget comes with the territory. Christine Mason McCaull, who’s launching her new company Socialogue, a social-media engagement firm, at the annual music, movie, and tech festival, being without the iPad 2 just wasn’t an option. She’s had hers shipped to meet her at the hotel.

And Apple is trying to take advantage of the techie, mainly Millennial crowd by opening a pop-up store at SXSW.

But businesses should consider this: "Apple didn’t go overboard on the business angle at the launch of the iPad 2 for good reason: It is not a market that is being aggressively targeted because it isn’t primarily a business device. Simple as that," writes Davey Winder of PC Pro. "Those niche businesses which did have a use for the iPad will, budgets allowing, already have invested in the technology and will find precious little reason to upgrade to iPad 2, as most of the advances were in design form rather than business function."

Still, when it comes to investing in Apple’s products, one enterprising computer science student at the University of California, Berkeley, has done the math on whether it’s smarter to buy an Apple computer or buy Apple stock.

Of his analysis, Kyle Conroy writes this:

“If, for example, you happened to have $5,700 in 1997, you would have been able to buy a PowerBook G3 250 (Original/Kanga/3500). If you had decided that this computer wasn't quite right for you and had put that $5,700 into Apple stock, your stock would now be worth $330,563. Which might, one suspects, be about $330,500 more than your PowerBook might be worth today.”

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