Apple fans have queued overnight at stores to get their hands on the new iPad, which went on sale today in 10 countries.
Apple announced the new iPad, which is seen as an evolution of the existing iPad 2, on March 7th. To tempt consumers into upgrading, the company packed in quad-core graphics, a better camera and a higher resolution display, similar to that found in the iPhone.
The technology firm has put the updated version of its tablet device on sale in a select number of countries in a first wave of a phased roll-out, including the United States, Canada, Singapore, France and Britain.
But Irish consumers will have to wait another week to get their hands on the tablet, with the new iPad due to go on sale here on March 23rd.
Diehards lined up overnight in front of Apple stores in Munich, Paris, London, Singapore and Hong Kong.Crowds were down on previous Apple launches, but there was still excitement as stores opened.
David Tarasenko, a 34-year-old construction manager who was the first to pick up the iPad from a Telstra store at midnight in Sydney, said ever since Apple chief executive Tim Cook revealed the tablet's third iteration, he couldn't wait to get one. "When Tim Cook announced it, it sounded like such a magical tool. I just got hyped into it, I guess," he said.
In London, 21-year-old Piotr, who works at noodle bar Wagamama, said: "It's not for me, it's to sell. I will bring them to Russia to sell them."
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 iPad3s 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."
Hype building ahead of the iPad sales pushed shares to record highs, with Apple stock reaching the $600 mark. It peaked half an hour after the first iPad went on sale in Australia, extending the market worth of the world's most valuable company to almost $560 billion.
Apple may sell 65.6 million iPads, according to an estimate by Canaccord Genuity analysts who also raised their target price on Apple stock to $710 from $665. So far, the company has sold 55 million iPads since it was launched in 2010.
Tablet sales are expected to increase to 326 million by 2015 with Apple largely dominating the market, according to research firm Gartner. The iPad competes with Samsung Electronic's Galaxy, among others, which uses Google's Android operating system.
"The iPad is already a pretty mature product and it's hard to revolutionise it any further," said Dickie Chang, an analyst with research firm IDC based in Hong Kong.
"It's slightly heavier than its predecessors and I think Asian consumers will be more concerned about that," he said. "Going ahead, with Tim Cook at the helm now, I think he may have to come up with another product to mark his stamp. That could come in the form of launching a smaller iPad with a longer battery life, for instance."
