Latest iPad sparks queues worldwide
Source: Agencies |
01:48 UTC+8 March 17, 2012
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE latest Apple iPad was looking like another hot seller yesterday, with hundreds queuing at stores around the world to get their hands on the tablet computer.
So far, no release date for Chinese mainland has been announced.
The third-generation device has only a few new features, but the buzz helped propel Apple shares to a record high of US$600 in New York on Thursday.
"I just got hyped into it, I guess," said David Tarasenko, a 34-year-old construction manager who was the first to pick one up from a Telstra store at midnight in Sydney.
Daniel Bader, a software developer who builds iPad apps and was queuing outside the Apple store in Munich, said: "You can't explain it."
Even in a tough economic climate in some parts of the world, many buyers, like 27-year-old Steve Henry in Paris, said they would scrimp elsewhere if necessary.
"I save money on my other purchases for high-tech shopping," said Henry, a systems engineer at a railway company who was hoping to buy his first iPad mainly to watch films and read during his more than two hours of travel per day.
The new iPad - Apple has refrained from calling it iPad 3 - has faster chips, fourth-generation wireless, a crisper display and a better camera, making it harder for competitors, which also lack Apple's range of apps and content, to catch up.
On price, too, Apple's rivals will struggle to beat it. The new iPad starts at US$499 in the United States, 479 euros (US$630) in Germany and 42,800 yen (US$510) in Japan.
Only Amazon's much more basic Kindle Fire is significantly cheaper.
Analysts expect a strong start for the latest iPad and some even expect sales of the current model to overtake the iPad 2. So far, the company has sold 55 million iPads since it was launched, kicking off the tablet market, in 2010.
Apple will continue to sell the iPad 2 but has dropped its price by US$100 to start at US$399.
Tablet sales are expected to increase to 326 million by 2015 with Apple largely dominating the market, according to research firm Gartner, rivaling sales of desktop computers, which Gartner expects to total 368 million units this year.
The enduring popularity of Apple products, and stock, have provided Chief Executive Tim Cook, who took over after the death of Steve Jobs last year, with a good start in the job.
Most valuable
The share price peaked at just over US$600 half an hour after the first iPad went on sale, extending the market worth of the world's most valuable company to almost US$560 billion.
Only a month earlier, the stock price had crossed US$500 for the first time.
In the Chinese city of Shenzhen, people keen to get their hands on the new iPad waited for them to be smuggled across the border from Hong Kong.
"We don't have iPad 3s yet, but some will arrive later in the day when the students deliver them to us. We'll have more supplies over this weekend," said a store operator in Shenzhen.
"Customs has become stricter, but if you take one at a time across the border, that's still pretty safe. At most they'll ask you to take it out of the box to prove that it's for self use."
So far, no release date for Chinese mainland has been announced.
The third-generation device has only a few new features, but the buzz helped propel Apple shares to a record high of US$600 in New York on Thursday.
"I just got hyped into it, I guess," said David Tarasenko, a 34-year-old construction manager who was the first to pick one up from a Telstra store at midnight in Sydney.
Daniel Bader, a software developer who builds iPad apps and was queuing outside the Apple store in Munich, said: "You can't explain it."
Even in a tough economic climate in some parts of the world, many buyers, like 27-year-old Steve Henry in Paris, said they would scrimp elsewhere if necessary.
"I save money on my other purchases for high-tech shopping," said Henry, a systems engineer at a railway company who was hoping to buy his first iPad mainly to watch films and read during his more than two hours of travel per day.
The new iPad - Apple has refrained from calling it iPad 3 - has faster chips, fourth-generation wireless, a crisper display and a better camera, making it harder for competitors, which also lack Apple's range of apps and content, to catch up.
On price, too, Apple's rivals will struggle to beat it. The new iPad starts at US$499 in the United States, 479 euros (US$630) in Germany and 42,800 yen (US$510) in Japan.
Only Amazon's much more basic Kindle Fire is significantly cheaper.
Analysts expect a strong start for the latest iPad and some even expect sales of the current model to overtake the iPad 2. So far, the company has sold 55 million iPads since it was launched, kicking off the tablet market, in 2010.
Apple will continue to sell the iPad 2 but has dropped its price by US$100 to start at US$399.
Tablet sales are expected to increase to 326 million by 2015 with Apple largely dominating the market, according to research firm Gartner, rivaling sales of desktop computers, which Gartner expects to total 368 million units this year.
The enduring popularity of Apple products, and stock, have provided Chief Executive Tim Cook, who took over after the death of Steve Jobs last year, with a good start in the job.
Most valuable
The share price peaked at just over US$600 half an hour after the first iPad went on sale, extending the market worth of the world's most valuable company to almost US$560 billion.
Only a month earlier, the stock price had crossed US$500 for the first time.
In the Chinese city of Shenzhen, people keen to get their hands on the new iPad waited for them to be smuggled across the border from Hong Kong.
"We don't have iPad 3s yet, but some will arrive later in the day when the students deliver them to us. We'll have more supplies over this weekend," said a store operator in Shenzhen.
"Customs has become stricter, but if you take one at a time across the border, that's still pretty safe. At most they'll ask you to take it out of the box to prove that it's for self use."
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